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By:

Kiran D. Tare

21 August 2024 at 4:53:13 pm

Return of the Fighter

Written off after her 2024 defeat, Smriti Irani’s return underlines the BJP’s continuing faith in one of its most combative political voices. Smriti Irani’s return to the BJP’s organisational high table is a reminder that in politics, defeat is often an intermission rather than an ending. For a politician whose career has been marked by spectacular rises and humiliating reversals, Irani’s latest comeback is almost on brand. Earlier this week, BJP president Nitin Nabin had named the former...

Return of the Fighter

Written off after her 2024 defeat, Smriti Irani’s return underlines the BJP’s continuing faith in one of its most combative political voices. Smriti Irani’s return to the BJP’s organisational high table is a reminder that in politics, defeat is often an intermission rather than an ending. For a politician whose career has been marked by spectacular rises and humiliating reversals, Irani’s latest comeback is almost on brand. Earlier this week, BJP president Nitin Nabin had named the former Union Minister as one of the party’s eight national general secretaries. The appointment restores Irani to the organisation’s inner machinery after the bruising 2024 Lok Sabha defeat that appeared to have abruptly ended her parliamentary career. In 2019, Irani had acquired the rare political distinction of defeating Congress scion Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, a constituency that had functioned for decades as shorthand for Congress dynastic power. Five years later, the same seat delivered her one of the BJP’s most conspicuous defeats when Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime Gandhi family loyalist, defeated her by 167,196 votes. For a politician accustomed to being the aggressor, defeat could have been particularly unforgiving. Irani has never been a conventional politician. She entered public life through television, became a familiar face to millions of Indians and then made the improbable transition from soap-opera celebrity to one of the BJP’s most recognisable political combatants. She joined the party in 2003 and rose through its organisation, including a stint as national president of its women’s wing. Irani’s great strength has been her ability to seize an argument and carry it into the political arena with unusual force. In Parliament and on the campaign trail, she emerged as one of the BJP’s most effective counterpunchers, particularly against the Congress leadership. Her confrontational style has earned her admirers and detractors in equal measure. Losing the 2024 election from Amethi while serving as a Union cabinet minister removed her from both Parliament and government at one stroke. The BJP itself had suffered a diminished mandate, winning 240 Lok Sabha seats, and several prominent ministers were defeated. But Irani’s defeat carried additional symbolism because of what Amethi had represented after 2019. But, true to her nature, Irani fought back, playing a conspicuous role during campaigning in the key West Bengal Assembly election this year, which saw the BJP snare power with a historic mandate. Her return suggests that the BJP has always valued her as a recognisable national voice with campaign experience and organisational familiarity. Her new position is, in some ways, even more consequential than a ‘consolation prize’ for a defeated former minister. Nitin Nabin’s new team combines experienced politicians with younger faces and gives women a conspicuous presence. Six of the 13 national vice-presidents are women, while women also feature among the secretaries and in other organisational positions. Irani is the sole woman among the eight national general secretaries which is, in itself, telling. Irani is particularly useful to the party’s vision of women empowerment as she embodies a version of political mobility that does not depend on a traditional political surname. Her journey, from television to the BJP’s national leadership, makes her an unusually legible figure for the party’s narrative of social and political ascent. Her return is likely to be especially relevant in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP faces the difficult task of rebuilding after its unexpectedly poor performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Irani knows the state’s political terrain and is already experienced in fighting the Gandhi family on its own turf. Irani has had the propensity of silencing her detractors with remarkable comebacks. She was once dismissed by opponents as a television actress playing at politics. Then she became a serious parliamentarian. She was then mocked for repeatedly challenging Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Then she defeated him in an open contest. After that victory, she became one of the most prominent women in the Modi government. Then she lost the very constituency that had made her a national political phenomenon. And yet, she is back again. Irani’s setbacks have made her return even more interesting. She is peculiarly suited for the BJP’s next phase of growth and consolidation – not as the giant-killer of 2019 who beat Rahul Gandhi but as the survivor of the 2024 Lok Sabha debacle. Her comeback is a test of whether political capital can survive electoral failure. In Irani’s case, the BJP appears to have answered with an emphatic yes.

Ideology, Illusion, and the Politics of Power

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi greets supporters during a roadshow ahead of the Kerala assembly polls, in Kozhikode district on Tuesday. | Pic: PTI
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi greets supporters during a roadshow ahead of the Kerala assembly polls, in Kozhikode district on Tuesday. | Pic: PTI

New Delhi: At a critical electoral juncture in Kerala, the political contest being waged in the name of ideology appears less about public welfare and more like a renewed struggle for the division of power. Kerala's electoral battle exposes contradictions between ideology and alliances, as BJP, Congress, and Left trade accusations while prioritizing power, leaving voters questioning credibility, governance plans, and commitment to justice.

 

At the national level, the Congress and the Left position themselves as opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yet before the public, they often appear equally eager to undercut one another. In Parliament, they join hands to bring no-confidence motions and accuse the government of misusing investigative agencies. However, at the state level, this coordination is conspicuously absent. In Kerala, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged a nexus between the CPI(M) and the SDPI, even hinting at tacit understandings between the BJP and the Left. Meanwhile, LDF Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dismissed these claims as "entirely baseless."

 

This persistent friction reinforces the impression that ideology has become largely symbolic, while the real contest revolves around consolidating vote banks and securing seats. The Left, invoking the language of "pragmatic alliances," signals readiness to align with the Congress at the national level. Yet in Kerala, it faces accusations of straying from its foundational principles, even as it projects itself as the principal alternative to the BJP.

 

Conspiracy factor

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly asserted in his campaign rallies that this election is a contest between two ideologies-the Left and the UDF. Yet, he claims, for the first time there is an "unprecedented partnership" emerging between the Left and the BJP. He alleges that the CPI(M) can be easily controlled by the BJP, whereas the Congress-led UDF would not play into its hands. Such assertions risk creating the impression that ideological confrontation has now given way to a politics of expedient compromises.

 

On the other hand, CM Pinarayi Vijayan firmly maintains that his party neither seeks support from the SDPI nor engages in any covert understanding with communal forces. He portrays the Left Democratic Front as a formation grounded in "clear ideological principles" and resolutely opposed to communal politics. The contradiction here is striking that just as the BJP accuses the Congress and the Left of collusion, the Congress and the Left, in turn, level similar charges of "compromise" against each other.

 

Confused Electorate

In Kerala's electoral theatre, PM Modi has branded both the UDF and the LDF as "each other's B team," while projecting the BJP as the only genuine "A team." His argument rests on the claim that the state has, for decades, been trapped between two traditional power blocs, one corrupt and the other allegedly even more so. He contends that both alliances have deceived the public through vote-bank politics, whereas the BJP now promises to "expose" their corruption and deliver "justice."

 

The larger question remains, when the Left and the Congress join hands in Parliament to oppose the BJP, is their unity rooted in a principled stand against the ruling party BJP/NDA, or is it merely political theatre calibrated for electoral convenience? If both claim to be ideologically committed formations, what justifies their readiness to confront each other in the states and often aggressively over vote banks?

 

Real Issues

At the national level, the Left often raises its voice on substantive constitutional and economic questions; corruption, public debt, privatization, and decentralization. Yet, in the heat of elections, these very debates are reduced to the arithmetic of vote banks and seat shares. The BJP, as the ruling party, seeks to anchor its campaign in development metrics, flagship projects like the Vizhinjam Port, and symbolic initiatives such as the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, presenting them as tangible achievements before the electorate. The opposition, in turn, attempts to recast these same initiatives as narratives of "debt" and "plunder."

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