Will Congress’ NYAY Change The Narrative For 2019 Polls?

Rahul Gandhi's NYAY, a scheme that promises to guarantee at least Rs 12,000 monthly income to 5 crore poor households, has brought election debate back to jobs and economy. With 10 days left before the first votes are cast, will it change the narrative?

This will not be a “wave election” and while both the national parties have strong narratives, the Congress has set the cat among the pigeons, according to Madhavan Narayanan, senior journalist and political commentator.

“For the Nehru Gandhi family to have its sway, they are trying to pull a rabbit out of their hat. The NYAY, despite criticism from the BJP, is not completely undoable and I do not think it involves a huge fiscal risk as it is being made out.”

R Jagannathan, editorial director at the Swarajya, said the national security can't be the focus beyond a point and it is the economic issues that will finally dominate the narrative.

“The BJP will have its own response to the NYAY scheme. They are not foolish enough to think that the entire election can be won on Balakot surge alone.”

Manu Sharma, editor, advanced analytics, at CVoter, pointed out that the BJP has not been able to put much sunlight between itself and the Congress when it comes to the bread-and-butter issues.

“The BJP will try to change the narrative towards it advantageous high ground of security issues. The Congress will try to bring down the BJP to its bread-and-butter issues. If the BJP is unable to keep the water boiling, then there is a chance that the focus will turn to bread-and-butter issues.”

Watch the full discussion here: