By early evening on Tuesday, weather wisecracks began. Old pros on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, which still houses a few newspaper offices, said: “Mausam badal gaya (the weather has changed).”
The reference was not only to the short, but intense spell of rain in parched Delhi, but also to the election results that raised the prospects of a coalition government at the Centre.
BSZ Marg is a 17-minute walk from the Bharatiya Janata Party office at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. This walk, by five in the evening, became a breeze, not just because of the rain. Security uniforms sprouted along the road and yellow iron barriers with squeaky wheels blocked the road.
Within half an hour, vehicular movement on this road became limited to police and other government vehicles. Small groups of BJP workers – about a dozen men and three or four women to a group — began to walk towards the party office. Nearly all of them had a dash of saffron on them: Cap, scarf, stole, ribbon, or everything. Intermittently, they raised slogans of “Narendra Modi ki jai,” Jai Shri Ram,” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” – glory to Prime Minister Modi, Lord Ram, and Mother India.
As Business Standard joined one of these groups on the walk, a group member, who was busy speaking into a phone camera, in video mode, held up by a mate, paused to say he had come from Gokulpuri, in North Delhi, which is about 13 km by the Delhi Metro. The group had come in a specially arranged bus.
Closer to the party premises, there was a simple security check, after which a pink drink was on offer (it promised to be strawberry shake but tasted like Rooh Afza). More groups formed, taking selfies as drums rented the air and men and women danced, watched on by horse riders wearing the badge of Sohan Lal Ghodiwala. Also watching over them were huge posters and cutouts of Prime Minister Modi.
Scene at BJP HQ
Inside one of the buildings, it began to get crowded around 6 in the evening, as saffron became by far the dominant colour. Keeping people cool were giant desert coolers.
This was markedly different from the ambience earlier in the day. Around noon, one of the BJP workers, Raj Ranjan, appeared to be lost for words. “This trend is worrying. But it is too early to say anything.”
At that time, there were only 10 to 15 people at the party office. Inside the headquarters, you could find water, but no sweets or snacks were on offer, which, a disappointed supporter said, “is the least they could have arranged for.”
Enthusiasm began to build up later in the day, not to be doused by the party falling well below the magical mark of 272. One party worker, when asked if he was disappointed, merely grunted in response. Another said: “Sarkar to apni ban hi jaigi (our party will form the government, regardless.”
Another worker, Sunita Lal, said: “Be it 400 or 300 paar, we want BJP to run the government and Modi to be our new Prime Minister.”
By six in the evening, you could see ceremoniously dressed people walking towards the party office, primed for a cultural show. Some religious looking people were heading there as well.
But the dominant sight was still the uniforms.
A sanitation worker at the party office said a large crowd was expected to build up as the time for the Prime Minister’s address approached. But, he said, it was nothing in comparison to what he saw after the 2019 results — a thumping win for the BJP.
A security person agreed with this assessment. “Result agar ummeed ke mutabiq hota, to aaap dekhte bheed wahan tak hoti (if the results were in line with expectations, the queues would have reached there),” he said, waving a hand up and down Deen Dayal Marg.
Congress HQ
If the BJP karyakartas appeared to be surprised by the result, so did the Congress ones, by the look of things on Tuesday morning. In the early hours, it seemed to be just another day at 24, Akbar Road: A few barricades outside, regular frisking of visitors, and a few media persons wandering in the garden.
There were no floral decorations, and no party flags. But things began to change within the hour. As the INDIA alliance crossed 200 seats in early trends, a giant screen appeared, beaming news channels. Party workers started congratulating each other, some of them danced before the screen. Those sitting wore a big smile.
The biggest shouts came when the news anchor said Rahul Gandhi was ahead in Raebareli and Smriti Irani trailing in Amethi. Slogans like “Rahul Gandhi jindabad”, “Congress ki andhi, Rahul Gandhi”, and “aagaya panja, chha gaya panja” were raised by workers wearing Nyaya Yatra T-shirts. Some clicked selfies with two party workers who looked like Rahul Gandhi.
One Congress worker pointed to the screen and said, “Bazaar me lagi aag”, referring to the stock market crash and causing much mirth all around.
Close to 10 in the morning, drummers arrived.
Ram Dayal, 25, who sells tea in the canteen, seemed like a busy man. He was not ready for so much business. “Tomorrow will be crowded as well,” he said.
By the afternoon, the drumbeats began to drown out the television commentary. The front lawn filled up with television cameras and bytes started to flow all around.
As the screen showed INDIA’s tally reaching 250, Suraj Singh, a 46-year-old party worker from Delhi, said: “Nayay yatra got a great response. People were eager to see Rahul. He met them, he hugged them.”
S Trirumaran, a party worker from Tamil Nadu, said. “Rahul is a strong leader, he is a gentleman.”
Outdoing him, Suraj Singh said: “Rahul has to be PM, obviously.”
But mausam does not seem to have changed that much.
The Aam Aadmi party office presented a sharp contrast to the BJP and Congress premises. It wore a deserted, desolate look. One of the men manning a table inside, when asked if anything was planned for the day, said the final results had yet to come in. His colleague on the next table disagreed vehemently. “It is already six in the evening, if anything had to happen, it would have started by now.”
