The Lok Sabha election results have come as a victory of people’s movements and a significant rebuff to the authoritarian, communal-corporate Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Peasants and workers, across the country, have been the most consistent forces that have relentlessly built up the struggles against the BJP regime from day one of Narendra Modi coming to power a decade ago.

The building of an issue-based unity against the draconian Land Acquisition Ordinance immediately after it was promulgated in December 2014 and the protest movement by the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, with the opposition parties also taking up the cudgels in the Parliament, led to its withdrawal. This was the first defeat faced by the Narendra Modi-led dispensation and undoubtedly it was in the wake of the issue-based united struggle not letting it go.

The struggles did not cease with this victory alone. Protests and resistance movements were launched against the attack on the livelihoods of people, the demonetisation-led crisis, the attacks in the name of Gau Raksha, against privatisation and sale of public sector undertakings (PSUs), the encroachment on Forest Rights, the National Monetisation Pipeline and various other issues.

The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions has had a longer presence and has played the role of countering the neo-liberal policies for decades and their experience also benefited the peasants’ movement. By June 2017 after the killing of farmers in police firing at Mandsaur in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, yet another issue-based unity called the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee was formed which took the struggles to a different plane.

The Kisan Long March from Nashik to Mumbai in March 2018 caught the imagination of the masses and sent a clear message that the BJP could be defeated and their invincibility was merely a creation of the corporate media and propaganda. The slogan BJP-Modi Kisan Virodhi emerged as an important factor in creating an atmosphere against the BJP regime.

Even when the BJP managed to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the wake of the Pulwama incident and heightened ultra-nationalistic campaign post the Balakot airstrike, one cannot forget that in the State elections before that the BJP was defeated in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

In the second term of Narendra Modi, the struggles intensified.

The historic united struggle of the peasantry and workers against the three pro-corporate Farm Acts and the four Labour Codes despite great repression and martyrdom of about 750 comrades emerged as a beacon of hope as Narendra Modi was forced to accept defeat and withdraw the Farm Acts and also did not dare to pursue implementation of the Labor Codes.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha was the new issue-based unity that drew in the widest sections of the peasantry cutting across class lines.

One cannot forget that the struggle was in the midst of a pandemic and when the fear of the disease kept large sections confined indoors under the stringent lockdown. They first won a victory over the fear of the pandemic, of the State repression and that in no small measure helped in the final victory when the three Acts were withdrawn. The Muzaffarnagar Kisan Mazdoor Maha Panchayat clearly proclaimed that the divisive communal agenda would be defeated by the unity of workers and peasants.

The SKM decisively created the narrative that the struggle was against the corporate loot; it was against the Modani Model, pitting the peasantry directly against the likes of the Adanis and Ambanis and epitomised them as the corporate cronies of the ruling regime for whose profiteering Narendra Modi was willing to sacrifice the interests of the millions of peasants and workers.

This narrative was amplified by the opposition parties too and had a significant role in the electoral defeat of the BJP. The SKM call - BJP Ko Sajaa Do / Punish BJP - was carried out across the country and SKM-JPCTUs took out many campaigns exposing the pro-corporate, communal policies of the BJP.

A campaign against the Agniveer Scheme, the treatment of women wrestlers and other issues were also taken up. In Punjab and Haryana, BJP candidates could not even freely enter the villages as they were met with protests by farmers. Massive literature, posters and campaigns were carried out too in coordination with the trade unions.

A consistent campaign was also carried out against Ajay Mishra Teni, responsible for the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where his son’s vehicle mowed down 5 farmers and a journalist.

The election results also vouch for the effective role of these campaigns.

In the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, which were the main centres of the struggle, the BJP lost badly in many of the rural seats. According to a report by Jitendra Choubey in the New Indian Express, BJP lost 38 seats in the farm belt of 5 states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra.

In Western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP lost in Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Nagina, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur and most significantly Lakhimpur Kheri from where Ajay Mishra Teni lost the elections. The BJP could not win a single seat in Punjab and has lost 5 seats in Haryana. In Rajasthan, where the BJP had won all the 25 seats in the 2019 elections, it lost 11 seats in the farm belt.

In Maharashtra’s onion belt, where two union ministers who were defeated, the NDA lost 12 seats with BJP drawing zero. Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda also lost in Jharkhand.

At the same time, the All India Kisan Sabha Vice President Amra Ram, who was one of the main leaders of the farmers’ agitation and led the struggle on the Shahjahanpur Border for 13 months, has won as the INDI Alliance supported CPI-M candidate from Sikar.

In Bihar, which also witnessed the consistent pursuit of the SKM calls, Rajaram Singh, General Secretary of the All India Kisan Mahasabha, who was a prominent leader of the united struggle, and Sudama Prasad, another Mahasabha leader, got elected from Karakat and Arrah, respectively, as the INDIA supported CPI-ML Liberation candidates.

In Maharashtra, the BJP lost 12 seats in the farm belt. The INDIA supported CPI-M candidate Satchidanandam who won from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu by over 4 lakh votes is also a leader of the All India Kisan Sabha.

If one were to look at the other states also, the impact of these struggles would be most evident.

In the wake of the serious setback to the authoritarian corporate-communal BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, there has been a clamour to crown certain individuals as the “saviour.” Some have been quick to place the laurels on individual political leaders. Some have also placed the laurels on Youtubers like Dhruv Rathee and independent journalists like Ravish Kumar and others, who took on a campaign against the political propaganda of the right-wing and the corporate Godi media.

The efforts of such individuals and opposition parties have undoubtedly played a role in the fight against the BJP and they all deserve credit.

This approach, however, has a significant flaw that tends to undermine the collective efforts of movements which, actually, in the first place, created the confidence that Narendra Modi was not invincible. The struggles of the youth, students, women, the oppressed and the historic struggle against the CAA have all also had significant contributions.

The fearless voices of dissent, including many who are languishing for years in prisons, have also undoubtedly played a decisive role. Thousands of unsung people who have selflessly worked with no expectation of any personal benefits, to defend the Constitution, democracy, secularism and federal rights, also cannot be forgotten.

The significant rebuff given to the authoritarian BJP is a cumulative of all these efforts including of the social media activists, independent journalists, leaders of different opposition parties, civil society members and a host of others.

Yet, it was peasants' and workers’ movements that proved to be the driving force that created the atmosphere and confidence for victory to be made possible.