How Rahul Gandhi set the Lok Sabha campaign narrative, and BJP followed

Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged the single largest party in the 18th Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is the clear winner in this year's game of narratives.

With the consecration of the Ayodhya Ram Temple at the beginning of this year, and the wave in favour of the saffron party that followed, the BJP was confident of winning more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha. They launched the election campaign with the slogan '400 paar'.

The Congress and its allies responded with a campaign focused on jobs, welfare and narrowing the wealth divide. Gandhi set the narrative, accusing Prime Minister Modi of making his rich friends richer, and promising to create crores of 'lakhpatis' instead.

Soon PM Modi, who was said to have no real competition -- within the party or in the opposition -- got pulled into a direct faceoff with Gandhi.

Today, with PM Modi set to run a coalition government in the truest sense, Rahul's rise as his political opponent seems inevitable.