Are you sure we are winning so comfortably?” the senior Congress leader’s voice on the phone sounded anxious. It was the night before counting day in Karnataka where an AxisMyIndia exit poll for India Today predicted a big win for the Congress. I asked the leader why he was so worried. “You know how Mr Modi has campaigned here in the last few days, maybe he has turned around the election,” was the nervous response. The reaction typifies how an aura of near invincibility has been built around Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s persona, best typified in the 2019 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) social media slogan, “Aayega to Modi hi” (only Modi will return to power). But Karnataka 2023 has dented the belief that a Modi-led BJP, a bit like the Clive Lloyd-led West Indian cricket team of the 1980s, is unbeatable.
