Is it another Modi wave or anti-incumbency undercurrent? Rajdeep Sardesai, Preeti Choudhry decode

I am the shy. The freely of election reporter is made life miserable for the Bharatiya Janta Party. Prime Minister Modi, if you’re watching, I speak good Gujarati. You going to this? No, I conflict. No, you can say conflict of interest. You’re watching Chunaab K Chaudhary. I’m Preeti Chaudhary. With me is Ragdeep Sardisai, who is the Chaudhary. And we’re in the middle of a Chuna. Finally seven phase law. That’s right. Preeti and I have been travelling, crisscrossing the country different parts, and we finally come back to the national capital for a short break. Because this is pretty a a marathon in excruciatingly hot India at this moment. I was in Maharashtra the other day and it was really hot at about 2:00 in the afternoon and I just my hats. I know I tipped my hat to these politicians conducting Rd. shows in this heat. I remember Mr. Kumaraswamy at 1:00 in the afternoon was looking as fresh as a Daisy while I was sort of wilting. But that’s, you know, they’ve got they’ve got skin in the game. What is it there? No, no, no. Look, what is in it for us? What is in it for us to cover an election. Is that just the sheer diversity of watching these politicians do their number across the country? I think you know just the this is the most remarkable country Preeti in the world where you can go to one corner of the country like I went to Maharashtra near Baramati, go 50 kilometers away from Baramati and there’s huge water scarcity. People are walking kilometers to get water. The tanker comes once in eight days and you can be in Pune which is looking like you know competing with Bengaluru to be the new IT capital of the country. So its the sheer diversity of India which makes covering an election so attractive. Because I was in Rajasthan and Jaipur is practically what you said is your is the Pune of Rajasthan, of Rajasthan and then you go all the way to Barmer which is about like couple of hours ago away and there’s just no water. Its you know your favorite line Tirineer of distance. I was in Maharashtra for a few days and just just speaking Marathi made me feel so good and you can because I was like part. I was with Saeed Joshi my colleague. You can pick up a nuances that if you know the language better that you can’t really do otherwise. And and we got this, you know, for the first time Ajit Pawar ever came on camera to speak to a national channel that too at 6:45 in the morning. But I think what really worked was because Sail and me spoke to him the night before in Marathi, we sort of softened him up and language makes a huge difference. So Prime Minister Modi, if you’re watching, I speak good Gujarati, You and I can go on a maybe a campaign trail. I’m. I’m hoping that Prime Minister Modi will take me on a day on the campaign trail. Look, I enjoy elections on most days. I get up during elections on my plate at five, 5:30 in the morning. I’ll give you a great example, sleep at 5:00, I’m on the road. Yeah. Yeah. So you you sort of drive in the night, but I do some, you know, my producer wants a short of sunrise. And at Marina Beach now he decided that we’ve got to do it at 4:45 AM in the morning. I said what? No. He said, look, sunrise at six. But well, build into that and well, get the right mood. I mean, come on, at my age you’re putting me at 4:45 in the morning and the other day we know you pull out one show in a week, we needed a board of Baramati. So we drove again back from Pune looking for that board and ended up driving 50 kilometers. I said, I mean are we going to now drive this road till you see that board of Baramati? Look, when you’re doing that kind of old fashioned TV in a way, I’ll give you an example. Many years ago, I I worked for a program called The World this week with Pronoy Roy, and we were covering Nepal. And my camera person insisted that the OR. I insisted that my first shot was going to be about how there’s a new sunrise over Nepal. The first communist government had won an election, so you wanted to shoot a sunrise. So we waited, looking at Everest for the sun to rise, and the first date was clouded out. Next day we got it. Now nobody does that anymore. Yeah, that’s the joy of television or used to be. Used to be, Used to be. So I tried doing some of that, you know, from time to time, but I know I’ve had a great time. I went to Mysore and tasted the Mylari dosa. Do you know there’s nothing called a Mysore dosa? Nothing. All over the country you have a Mysore Masala dosa. It does not exist. The real dosa is a Mylari dosa and it’s made of sago. That’s what you’ve got to have. It’s beautiful. At least you got some food. And guess what? We have one meal in a day and let me one meal in a day, and if we get it, we are nothing. Poor Preeti is suffering. I’m not, OK. The fact is, let me give you a classic in Mysore. The BJP candidate is this Yadavir Odia from the royal family debutante, about 31 years old. America returned, so it was really hot, right? And he was having a glass of water and so was I. And I said, you know, for you this must be very different from the palace. You know this he, he said No, we don’t have any air conditioners in the palace except in my room. And I said, what here is this king? I couldn’t believe it. The king is living in this large palace of Prince and he doesn’t have a proper air conditioner. But you know he’s its an interesting seat because pratap Pratap Simha was the two time MP pretty popular in the area but he’s been replaced by because of what went down possibly in the parliament maybe could could be one of the reasons I’m not sure by anti incumbency but could be was seen as controversial contentious but very popular. So you know its interesting you its the one time even a Prince has to come out of the palace and and and be a citizen. I think that’s what elections do, whether you’re a Prince or whether you’re a pauper. When you go for votes. Yeah. And one time when people become king, you can actually see the dynamics of politicians and the polity change completely. And. And, you know, Preeti, when I like Ajit Pawar, right, Calls it at 6:45 in the morning, I reach at 6:30. There are 500 people, at least outside his house, in his garden. Amazing. Those are real mass leaders. Yeah, exactly. You see. Have you seen any of them in Rajasthan or where where you see Kellogg is a mass leader? Yeah, though his son is fighting from jaloor but you can but its practically Ashok Gehlot fighting because he’s not moving out of Jaloor, he’s staying put and he’s practically fighting this election for his son. And you can see that kind of traction where Ashok Gehlot is concerned. But let me tell you about Rajasthan. Sachin Parrot pulls in the crowd but both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Parrot are not fighting but somebody who’s fighting and who’s pulling in crowds which are insane. Rajdeep is an independent from Barmer Ravinder Singh Bharti interesting character. 27 year old, 2027 year old BJP ideology wanted a ticket for the, you know, from the BJP in state elections, was refused. Decided to go independent from Shio constituency in Barmer. One came back and said give me the ticket for Barmer and he was refused. Because you have a Kelash Choudhury, a strong JATT leader from barmed MOS Agriculture. Third time 10 years already there huge amount of anti incumbency. But the BJP decided to go with the sitting MP Kelash Choudhury. He was refused, decided to go independent. He’s made life miserable for the Bharatiya Janta Party and the kind of crowds are deep. This man is pulling, this younger, 27 year old is pulling. This is bizarre. You know, when when people tell me democracy is dead, I, you know, I believe institutions have weakened and that’s really a serious problem, democratic institutions. But out there there are still people like Bharti and others who are connecting with audiences, who are getting receptive audiences. And I think as long as that diversity, I think Indias diversity will ensure that Indias democracy does not die. Well, I remember we did this rally of Kamala Kamal Haasan and Danny D Maran and you know the women thought, I’m sorry, the DMK women thought I’m Kamal Haas, brother. So they kept there was a line, there was a there was a selfie line longer than a Salman Khan first day first show. And my cameraman for for a while we thought that they were watching English news TV. Then I told them bloody hell, they couldn’t be there watching Tamil news and they think I am Kamal Haasan brother. And I also played along and you know, I called myself Raj Hassan and and you know, it was, it was great fun and it was colorful. There was noise and there was you know it was like a big Tamil blockbuster film, right knife in central Chennai. Did you know you’re right there Nagina Chandrasekhar Azad fighting on his own parties ticket the ASP. But interesting you know where where where UP is concerned. Though I do feel that you know what they say in UP colloquial terms. Muzaffar Nagar ka seat fasa. Why for Mr. Baliyan not going too well for him. But you know Rajdeep, if I just come back and you need to gather your thoughts, what would be your biggest take away till now with what you’ve seen 4-5 larger strokes on this issue. My biggest take away way so far is I havent seen a more unenthused electorate in general barring pockets then at the moment since 2009. You see 2014 you sense that there was this mood for change. You know, there was a mood for change. Modi was the new leader on the block. You know, there are two things that we keep saying in journalism, wave and undercurrent. And frankly I am, you know, I, you know, you can pick up a wave. You can pick up a wave. Picking up the undercurrent is more difficult, its undercurrent before the show, right before the show, because he’s done so many elections. And I asked him, tell me how will you read an undercurrent and he raised his eyebrows. No, I don’t know what is an under, you know, actually because because because you’ve got a lot of silent voters, right. I’ve often wondered Preeti, that you know, its not so much the voter that you who comes to your camera who actually tells you what happens with an election, but the guy or the woman who’s sitting far away, you you have to go to them. They’re not interested in coming to you at all. And then when you get talking to them, you realize what is actually happening. I remember Karnataka last year when I met this woman silently standing on the side who who spoke about the price of LPG. And you got a sense that you know that was the reason why this had become almost the LPG election. The silent voter who does doesn’t want to come on camera often tells you the real story. And there is, there is a sullenness at the moment. You know, there isn’t that sort of up key bar char so par. Nor is there some sort of anger against the Modi government at all. So there’s a sullen, you know, there’s a sullen voter. Its a Thunder election for now. It could pick up steam, the prime ministers making every effort to enthuse people. And look, I think even if there’s been a low voter turn out in round one, it could work to the advantage of the BJP because of their last mile connectivity, their ability to take people to the booth. But there are, you know, even there, there is no perfect indicator from the past that low, low voter turn out means the government is in trouble or vice versa. I’ll ask you, Rajdeep, I did see a huge chunk of a silent voter. Now is this Modis voter who’s not that vocal this time? What are the silent vote this election as per union? You know, I think the silent what people forget is Indias had five very tough years. We sit in Delhi studios and think, you know, Indias on the move. Yes it is. But there are people suffering from water scarcity lost jobs during COVID suffered because of GST. You go to Coimbatore, I met this guy who used to be a job worker for a hosiery plan and then he’s flying an auto today, right. Why? Because the because there are no, he wasn’t getting enough work. So you’ve got a lot of such examples across the country where rural distress, falling incomes, jobs have all affected people. So I think the voter is sullen. He doesn’t see he could be a Modi voter. He could be a Congress voter. Look, the Modi voter tends to normally be a little bit more assertive. I was on this rally of Tejasvi Surya in South Bangalore. He had organized a run from Namo with Rohan Bopanna and all that. And they were all shouting Modi, Modi and shouting in my ears and then thinking that, you know, I might, I might do a Madison Square Garden. Once again, I’m not. And I had my bulky producer, Vivek, who’s, you know, built like a boxer. So he was protecting me. But look, I think the voter in general, barring those you know, hyper enthused voters of of South Bengaluru, by and large has had a tough time in the last five years. And I don’t think he thinks that an election is going to change anything. And I’ll tell you why. N Bangalore for example is 31,00,000 voter constituency. Barmer, where you went, is a huge sprawling constituency. Baramati. That’s right in terms of size, but in terms you know, Baramati is 22,00,000 from Ambi Valley near Lolavala. You come into rural Baramati, How is 1 MP going to resolve all your problems? So I think the voter generally feels that, you know, is this election really going to change my life? There’s a sense of disillusionment at times with politics in general, not with specifically does, and I think that reflects in the turn out. So I’m now going to look for places where there’s color and when. Of course. Lovely food. Well, great. So I’ll be heading to West Bengal, Odisha and maybe UP because hopefully we’ll have because she knows Bengali. She says she likes Bengali, but they speak Hindi there. OK, I really don’t want to say why aren’t you going to West Bengal. No, I conflict. No, You can say conflict of interest. Conflict of interest. The one state that I’m not going to in this election is West Bengal. That’s Bengal’s lost, not mine.