How Congress avoided making "Modi the person" an electoral issue in Karnataka

New Delhi: Whether Congress wins Karnataka or BJP, the election for state assembly is going to settle another decade-long debate - does attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi pay political dividends?

In an election rally in Karnataka’s Bidar district, PM Modi said someone sent him a list of abuses hurled at him by Congress leaders so far and the compilation says he was abused 91 times with different types.

There was a consensus within Congress too that during electoral campaigns, party leaders should refrain from making personal comments on the PM as it helps Modi to gain political traction.

Examples are many. From Sonia Gandhi calling Modi “maut ka Saudagar” to Mani Shankar Aiyar’s “Chaiwala” to “Neech Aadmi” comments - all of them resulted in electoral losses for Congress. 

During the Karnataka campaign, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge likened Modi to a “venomous snake". Though he later clarified that he was talking about the ideology of PM Modi rather than the person Modi when used the words “venomous snake”.

BJP was quick to see an opening and Modi expanded the attack by reminding voters that he had been abused 91 times by the Congress leaders.

But this time Congress didn’t flinch when Modi made personal abuses an electoral issue.

Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said PM should make a list of works he had done for common people rather than listing out abuses and she added PM had a list of abuses limited to a page, but if she starts counting abuses hurled at her family, books can be complied.

Rahul Gandhi said the Karnataka election was about Karnataka's people and not about one person or Modi, adding, “Prime Minister has to understand this."

Kharge too went with the flow and said the PM should not “cry” and answer the questions posed to him about the work he has done for the people of Karnataka.

This seems to be a newfound confidence in Congress.

The party rather than going into a shell has tried to turn the table by reminding Modi that the people of Karnataka should remain focused and that the election is not about the PM and this tried to take one of the biggest electoral weapons in the PM’s armoury wherein he turns the election into a clash of personalities wherein Modi the person becomes an electoral issue.

In the clash of personalities, Modi always emerges the winner because he is without any doubt the tallest leader in the country at this moment.

Maybe Congress is confident because lots of pre-poll surveys have put the party in a pole position in Karnataka. But the move seems to be strategic too as the party is calibrating its stance with regard to Modi the person ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Political observers say state assembly elections cannot be equated with the general elections where Modi the person will remain a major political issue. But Karnataka elections results may give us some clue about Congress’s strategy to deal with Modi the person in 2024.