Congress has won and BJP has lost...the writing is on the wall (and on almost every other newspaper worth of its salt). There has been a rush of theories trying to show that this was obvious ( like it always happens). However, it is very clear that even the UPA did not expect such a mandate. Infact, the markets were very nervous on the friday with news of a hung parliment making rounds.
What really happened during the different phases of the election?I am not a guru on these topics to give a lot of inputs. However, i have been trying to understand what happened.
For one, there was the anti-incumbancy factor that was against the Congress. There were other major problems including the Terrorist attack in November and foolish and irrational statements made by the congress leaders afterwards. Yet, Congress managed to be one of the favorites among the metros ( Sweeping Delhi with all 7 seats!!).
Technically speaking, the NDA was a in a very good position to win this elections.
However, the BJP tone was not really the best. Though it portayed strength and a strong leader it also showed that it was more interested in portarying what
UPA had not done rather that what they wanted to do. There was enough mud-slinging in the last few days of election campaigning that could perturb any sane
BJP supporter.The article
here differs with the above view and makes a good reading.
The other school of thought is that the youth voted out the
BJP. I do not agree to this in totality. However, it is true that the "Mangalore Pub incident" ( though BJP was not directly involved) changed the young voters sentiments. Also, they felt that they could relate to Mr. Rahul Gandhi who represented the youth. Sometimes i just feel that it was a case of " A known devil is better than an unknown angel".
What should BJP do if it intends to come back ?First it should try to understand why they lost some of their home grounds. From 50 odd seats a decade back in UP to just 8. That is a pointer that there is something really going wrong. Second, shed the saffron image to an extent when it makes logical sense. Swapan Dasgupta puts it aptly
here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
2004, the Congress didn't win the
election, the BJP lost it.......
The
BJP must once again ask the question it once addressed but has conveniently
forgotten to ask of late: is it content to being a sectional player or does it
want to be a serious contender for power?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Promotion of younger blood up the ranks is a must for a young and exuberant growing economy. With the youth and the village folks making up a majority of the poplulation i guess it is time that the NDA looks into these aspects also.
Having said all that, and having said that again.....In the end In a country like India.....elections and governments are bound to be unpredicatable....Thatz why they say, India is not a country it is a subcontinent. Good part is that we do not have a fractured mandate and hopefully we will have a strong and capable govenment for the next five years.
(If not, you will see me writing something again in this regard...claiming why it all had to happen :P)
[ Btw, some folks in my office feel that the poll results could be rigged...no comments!!]
Update: One more
nice article that i came across.
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