"A party or leader succeeds brilliantly when there's synergy between the (authentic)message,the (credible)messenger and the moment(and its anxieties and aspirations)..."
The Hindu April 16,2009
The UPA government had survived five turbulent years in office despite receiving a fractured mandate in the 2004 general elections...Numerous bickerings with the Left and almost as many brickbats from the opposition ensured that the governance had been anything but stable...
Five years down the line the world's largest democracy geared up for another bout of machiavellianism,and a very promising one at that...A plethora of voters,both young and old eager to exercise their franchise and numerous self anointed king makers dishing out promises to woo them all..Pardon me for not mentioning the sheer numbers for they are mind boggling indeed..Thousands of polling booths spread across the length and breadth of the nation catering to an almost unimaginable suffrage...The Indian General Elections are a spectacle unmatched and unheard of elsewhere....
The Election Commission, which had had its own share of mudslinging in the run up to the elections, did a remarkable job in staging a by and large peaceful and fair electoral process..Spread over an entire month encompassing 5 different phases, the canvassing itself was more or less on expected lines..The ruling alliance fought the election on the plank of quality governance while the NDA banked mainly on the anti incumbency factor and a largely underplayed Hindutva campaign(unsurprisingly though)...
May 16,2009....
Come D-Day and the country waited with baited breath..Political pundits and novices alike had predicted a hung parliament..But the UPA juggernaut was not to be thwarted..The voters had handed them a very comfortable mandate,a mandate for a responsible and stable government..The BJP found itself lagging behind yet again..The Third and Fourth fronts had been shunted aside..They, in any case, had probably bitten off more than they could chew...India's enfranchised population seemingly swept aside all religious and caste concerns and voted enmasse for development...
It was as much a mandate for the outsider(read between the lines :P )Mrs.Sonia Gandhi as for the gentleman at the helm, Dr.Manmohan Singh(on his way to 7,Race Course road yet again)...The promising Rahul Gandhi extolled the merits of enlightening the youth brigade and his alleged political naivety paid rich dividends for the Congress in the Hindi heartland,with the party pocketing an unprecedented 21 parliamentary seats from Uttar Pradesh(arguably the biggest turnaround in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections)
Adorned with a comprehensive mandate,the UPA enjoys an enviable position in the lower house of the parliament now..They would do well to keep their festivities in check and get down to the far more serious job in hand..
Signing off in anticipation of a wholesome and cornucopian response to the trust the Indian public has shown in the United Progressive Alliance...
JAI HO!!
PS:The aforesaid is strictly my personal opinion..Any bias should therefore be excused...
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