Before the results of the 2019 general elections were announced, there was a debate on whether a Modi wave like 2014 was still present. However, after the election, it was very clear that like 2014, Modi wave swept throughout the country except for Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. These states have never been a stronghold of BJP and therefore organizational machinery is very weak in these states. The party could not win the elections there despite the personal popularity of PM Modi. For the first in the history of the last century, India has witnessed such a leader with a cross country appeal. No other leader in the world, in any parliamentary democracy has been ever elected with such huge voter base.
Size of the country (Land mass+population) X Size of the Economy X Size of the election mandate = Leader’s Power Quotient. By the measure of this crude formula, @narendramodi is about to become the most powerful, democratically elected leader in the world today…
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 23, 2019
After the election results, Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, tweeted “Size of the country (Land mass+population) X Size of the Economy X Size of the election mandate = Leader’s Power Quotient. By the measure of this crude formula, @narendramodi is about to become the most powerful, democratically elected leader in the world today.” The popularity of PM Modi is unmatchable to any person around the world given the fact that more than 35 crore people (More than the population of United States) voted NDA to see him on Prime Minister’s chair for the second time. Out of the 142 constituencies PM Modi campaigned, BJP won 114 which translate into 80 percent strike rate.
PM kick-started his 51-day long campaign from the electorally most important state of Uttar Pradesh on 28 March. He addressed a huge rally in Meerut, western UP and BJP’s incumbent MP Rajendra Agrawal won the constituency despite unfavorable caste arithmetic.
In the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, PM held 60 rallies. The party won the majority of the seats in the region despite Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh and dismal losing the state battle in assembly elections held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
In Uttar Pradesh where PM trumped all old caste equations in the previous general elections, PM Modi addressed 30 Lok Sabha seats of which BJP won 23 seats which translate to 76 percent strike rate.
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP lost the state assembly elections due to three-term anti-incumbency but the voters were intelligent enough to distinguish between national and state issues and voted en masse for PM Modi. BJP won all the seats where PM addressed people. BJP won all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state except one.
In Chhattisgarh, Congress swept the assembly elections with the unexpected mandate but the people trusted PM Modi for the national election. Modi conducted rallies in three constituencies and BJP won two of them which translate into strike rate of 66 percent.
West Bengal, the state where the battle was most bitter, PM Modi addressed people of 16 constituencies and the party won half of the seats.
PM Modi’s popularity in his home state Gujarat and its neighboring state of Maharashtra has intact as the party won all the seats where he campaigned.
In Odisha where BJP is still making inroads and incumbent chief minister Naveen Patnaik is popular enough to win the fifth term, PM held rallies in eight Lok Sabha seats and BJP won five of these. In Assam, BJP won all the seats where PM campaigned.
In the southern state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala where BJP has a negligible organizational infrastructure, NDA lost four out of five constituencies where Modi campaigned.
The strike rate of PM Modi shows that he is vote-catcher, popular among electorates and influential enough to change the opinion of voters. In many states like West Bengal, Karnataka the party won solely on the basis of PM’s popularity despite all odds.