Echoes from the Ground: Decoding BJP’s Subdued Show and the Working Class Verdict

On Tuesday, Vinod Kumar, a security guard at a Delhi Development Authority (DDA)-managed park, had his cell phone clamped to his ear to follow the election results.

He grinned and said the BJP needs to take some lessons as clarity started to dawn.

"I spend eight hours at work. The DDA pays my contractor Rs 17,000 per month in exchange for paying my wage. I get Rs 9,000 from him. This is happening in all of Delhi's DDA parks. The Narendra Modi government is pushing contractual employment while the contractors are taking advantage of us, Kumar said.

Experts and laborers alike stated on Tuesday that the working class is sending a message to the BJP through its lackluster showing in the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that the BJP will win 370 seats, but in reality, the party received fewer than 250 seats.

"My spouse also works in a store." Even though we both work, we don't buy our kids books and study materials. Who bears that responsibility? Kumar enquired.

According to Kumar, third-party labor contractors are increasingly being used by the public and private sectors to hire labor.

The security guards hired by contractors for the private flats are paid Rs 9,000 and are required to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week.

For the last five years, there has been no raise in the wage. "Working here is the only option available to me," a security guard at Radhika Apartment remarked.

The working class was looking for new choices because of problems including rising prices, unemployment, and poorly constructed assistance systems, according to Atul Sood, a faculty member at the JNU Centre for Study of Regional Development.

Because of the promise of "achhe din," the working class had higher expectations from the Modi administration. When they consider their current state of affairs, they discover no improvement. Through welfare programs like free rations, the government provides a certain level of survival assistance. The working class needs steady income, but that's not what they can get, according to Sood.

He said that despite government promises, farmer incomes have not doubled by 2022. The Swaminathan Commission's report was not adopted by the government. There is a serious agricultural problem. Farmers' incomes were unchanged. Because no particular steps were taken to boost agriculture, it continued to be a residual sector, according to Sood.

Young people without jobs, he claimed, were also fed up with the administration. They object to programs like Agnipath and the growing contractualization of employment in the public and private spheres.