The BJP's Real Opposition Isn't Congress—It's Gen Z on Social Media

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By TRH Op-Ed Desk

In a sharp commentary for The Raisina Hills, analyst Manish Anand argues that Gen Z’s social media backlash — not television narratives — is now shaping the BJP’s political fortunes, with Congress poised to benefit

New Delhi, July 28, 2026 — Has Indian politics fundamentally shifted? According to political analyst Manish Anand, the answer is a clear yes.

Speaking on The Raisina Hills, Anand pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to drop minister Dharmendra Pradhan from the cabinet, following pressure from a student-led movement, as evidence that the ruling party’s long-dominant political machinery is facing an unfamiliar kind of resistance.

“It looks like the BJP is rattled,” Anand said, arguing that the party appears to have no answer to the wave of reels, memes and satire flooding social media — a space where its traditional television-driven narrative holds little sway.

Anand noted that the young protesters on the streets largely don’t watch television news, meaning the BJP’s usual messaging apparatus simply doesn’t reach them. He also raised a pointed question about the Prime Minister’s annual “Pariksha Pe Charcha” interactions with students — questioning whether the goodwill built through those sessions has been undercut by the anger now visible on the streets.

On the charged language used against the government during the protests, Anand pushed back on claims that this marks a new low in political discourse, recalling past instances of abusive language from BJP lawmakers in Parliament that went unchecked — even drawing laughter from senior ministers at the time. He argued that the mainstreaming of coarse language in Indian politics, accelerated by the post-pandemic web series boom, has now become the shared vocabulary of both political leaders and the street.

Turning to the electoral implications, Anand said any erosion in BJP support would directly benefit the Congress party, given the two parties are direct rivals in states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. He pointed to Congress’s historical comfort with coalition governance — citing the PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh governments — as an advantage as regional parties increasingly gravitate toward the Congress-led INDIA bloc.

Anand highlighted the 2024 Lok Sabha results, where the BJP fell to 240 seats, as a turning point, suggesting that a modest swing of around 20-30 additional seats to Congress could have changed the outcome entirely. He said continued anti-incumbency sentiment among young voters heading into the 2027 state elections and the 2029 general election could strengthen the case for a Congress-led coalition government.

However, Anand cautioned that sentiment alone won’t translate into electoral victory. “Congress needs to build real strength on the ground — booth-level committees, party workers, sustained engagement — not just symbolic participation in protests,” he said, warning that without that groundwork, favourable public mood can still fail to convert into results, as seen in Haryana.

(Manish Anand is a political analyst. Views expressed are his own.)