So much to love about elections!

Surely yoursquove heard that Abraham Lincoln adage to do with politicsmdashabout how you canrsquot fool all of the people all of the time But all is not what you need rightIn elections you only have to convince or fool some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the timemdashfor the politicianparty to get through Thatrsquos how firstpastthepost system works sadly or notSlight shift in voteshare can cause monumental turnaround in seat numbersmdashmaking predictions with populations so vast a potentially foolhardy exercise sometimesIs that what makes following Indian election leadsresults ball by ball like a sport on Dday such an anticipated spectacle YupConsider that no victor in Indian electionsmdashwhether during Nehrursquos times when India was practically a singleparty polity even when Rajiv Gandhirsquos Congress picked up the maximumever 414 seats in 1984 let alone Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos 2019 BJP wavemdashhas ever touched a 50 per cent voteshareThat tells you in every general election without exception number of voters in the opposition have inevitably been larger than those for Indiarsquos ruling party The former will always show up on the groundA tired Pappu Yadav catches up on sleep during campaigning in Purnea PicMayank ShekharUnless I speak too soon this summarily puts to rest fears of a de facto dictatorship in India On the condition of course that elections held in the future remain relatively free Dissent is naturally embedded in a somewhat fair democracyFrankly I encounter too many privileged blokes who claim to be ldquoapoliticalrdquo by nature This is probably a hopelesscynical response to how power corruptsmdashalthough itrsquos possibly the other way around Corruptible are most attracted to power So you just let them beAlso upper classes have little stake in the wider progressively widening Indian electorate demanding housing toilets grains roads doles loans reservations guarantees that must hopefully extend to schools and hospitals somedayThat said I find claims of being ldquoapoliticalrdquo to be untrue Itrsquos impossible to be apolitical when every move you makemdashdown to whether you take train rick Uber or Ferrari to workmdashis also a political choice Everything personal is political We just donrsquot call it thatWhat the privileged mean is they donrsquot care for daily gossipy partisan politics Their interest in which you can gauge from news engagement stats skyrockets during Indian elections stillWhy Because until then politicians get viewed as a class who in turn see citizens as a crowd Elections is the only the time the two meet facetoface And politics becomes about people per seEven as almost overnight several amateurs attain advanced Yogendra Yadav level understanding of religion region caste mathmatrix further reducing public into alphabet soupsSuch as Modirsquos GYAN Gareeb Yuva Annadaata meaning farmers Narishakti Lalursquos MYBAAP MuslimYadav Backwards Alp Sankhyak Aadhi Population as in women etc How do the actual polls play out then Of course through a campaignmdasha word we only otherwise associate with war and advertising Evidently elections are bothTechnically indefatigable PM Modi has campaigned daily for a decade Be that as it may adding to it the constant hesaidshesaid shrill from all endsmdasheverything apparently comes down to the final milemonthsConfusing everyone including political parties so much that nobody can convincingly tell WTF is going on if general elections with hindsight are anything as fascinating as 2024 deemed foregone until resultsWherein I know from a source that during the campaign Rahul Gandhi unnecessarily nicknamed lsquoPappursquo himself was aiming for 80 seats for Congress he bagged 99Things actually get way more intriguing if by sheer luck yoursquod happen to drop in to say FaizabadAyodhya that voted against BJP after Ram TempleI had the most serendipitous fun in Purnea Bihar where according to a source Congress had decided to field one Pappu SinghAnother Pappu ie Pappu Yadav had recently joined Congress He may have thought the Pappu on the Cong ticket was himOnly that seat in the sharing arrangement within INDIA bloc went to RJD Which was determined at any cost not to field alleged extortionist plus Robinhood Prince Pappu YadavWho on the other hand had been nurturing this constituency over threefour years after he lost from neighbouring Madhepura in both general and Assembly elections in 2019 2020Anybody in Purnea could callpage Pappu exdon on his personal phone if they needed helpmdashoften with accessing healthcare and sundry favours During COVID19 for instance he decided to charter buses to bring Purnea students back from Kota RajasthanPappu stood as an Independent During the campaign his followers created quite a ruckus at RJDrsquos road showsmdashsuch that as per my sources the party ploughed all their monetary resources lastminute to check the egomaniaPappursquos wife couldnrsquot canvass for him since shersquos a Rajya Sabha MP from Congressmdashthe party that Pappu had joined but was taking onHis main opponent was from Nitish Kumarrsquos JDU within BJPled NDA PM Modi personally came down to campaign against Pappu Purnearsquos affluent who voted for him I figured wouldnrsquot instantly tell me soPappu alone beat JDU BJP RJD Congress Elections is serious stuff I know Itrsquos not entertainment I think we havenrsquot thanked the public for providing enough of it though Hope it stays this wayMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper