Was the Election Commission of India always biased towards the ruling party, or is it a phenomenon that developed after Modi came to power?

Till the eighties and even a little bit in the early nineties, most games were natural and played by the instinct of the players and as per the advice of coaches. There were no extensive studies or dissections made. The players could play their natural games. Then there came TV and computer-based analyses. A number of cricket, tennis, and badminton players started suffering at the individual level. This's true for other individual as well as team games as well. The bowling action of a bowler or the batting techniques of a batsman started being intensely studied in slow motion and their counteractions were being designed. The games were no longer being played on the field. The major part was started being played on the drawing board.

The player who never needed a helmet even when playing against the fiercest pace attacks. He played with the least possible safety gear. But today players need helmets even when playing against spin bowling. We have players in politics who need every support on earth even when playing against Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier if someone had to write an article in economics he or she had to spend days or even weeks visiting libraries and collecting references. Today it is extremely easy. We get things instantly. It was Prannoy Roy and Vinod Dua who were the first election analysts in India. Pronnoy Roy yes the same person who started the NDTV was possibly the first qualified psephologist in India. The subject is being studied by very few. Anyway, these studies and understanding started making things different, complicated as well as easy. Politics no longer remained a field game like most games. A major part started being played on the drawing board. Let me give an example of how things changed.

Congress led by the late Rajiv Gandhi lost the election despite securing a 40% vote share in 1989 whereas Mod won 282 in 2014 with only a 31% vote share. You see it's no longer a matter of who's more popular. In the 1999 election, Congress could win only 114 seats with a 28.30% vote share whereas BJP secured 182 seats with only 23.75% vote share. Can you imagine that Rajiv Gandhi could win only 197 seats with 40% vote share in 1989 and V P Sngh won 143 seats with an 18% vote share? Whereas Modi won 303 seats with only 37% vote share. Congress won 206 seats in 2009 with almost 29% vote share.

With almost 20% vote share Congress could win only 52 seats in 2019 whereas BJP won 182 seats with only 23.75% vote share in 1999. It's evidently clear that Congress doesn’t understand the subject called psephology, nor did it ever know how to take benefit of the system despite being in power when it had. Popularity or heroics alone don’t work in any field anymore. Otherwise, Rajiv Gandhi would have been PM for the second time.

The election commission has always been in control of the ruling party. However, either Congress never tried to exert its control or it never knew how to take benefit or undue advantage of it. Rajiv Gandhi possibly never felt that he needed to use the EC to his advantage. In clear contrast, we can see that BJP’s numbers have been much higher with the corresponding vote share ever since Vajpayee’s time. We do not know whether Vajpayee Ji took advantage of the system or not. But the symmetry with Modi's seat number as well as vote share is there. Things are comparable. For Congress, the vote share and the number of seats are not comparable. So it seems that the BJP is far far superior to Congress in playing politics on the drawing board. And the drawing board politics involves everything from EC ED to Money, Media, IT cell, and whatnot. Congress should look for a specialist analyst if not one taken already.