06 May, 2009 Freeway: Left-hand drive  With more and more poll surveys predicting a photo finish in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is again looking leftwards. The party is seeing signs of a conciliatory tone in CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat ‘ s statement that the Left was not for scrapping of the Indo-US nuclear deal but wanted certain aspects of the agreement to be reworked. A senior Congress leader said the United Progressive Alliance and their estranged Left partners had travelled a long distance after the nuclear deal. "Earlier, they were totally against the nuclear deal. Today, their stand is different and they now say they will only make suitable changes in the deal," he said. The party is also hopeful that the Left ‘ s reservations with Manmohan Singh as prime minister would melt away in a matter of time. Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi also indicated the possibility of allying with the Left again, saying his party had a lot of common ground with the Left parties. However, in the melee of coalition politics, this overture to the Left has understandably infuriated the Trinamool Congress, which is the Congress ‘ ally in Left-ruled West Bengal. Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has asked the Congress to choose between her party and the Left. This is just a teaser of what to expect after May 16, when the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls come out. The post-poll scenario has the makings of a chaotic finish to the what is perhaps the most open-ended elections that we have had. Posted By  sonimishra  12:09 hrs Comments(0)       Are you sure you want to delete the post? OK Cancel 04 May, 2009 Hand vs haathi in UP  The journey from the Panchmarhi resolution to the Shimla declaration for the Congress was that of a realisation that the party would have to reconcile to its decline and the rise of regional parties and also that it would have to form alliances with the state players if it had to be in power. The Panchmarhi declaration, adopted by the Congress at its conclave in the hill station in 1998, emphasised on the `Ekala Chalo ‘ motto, while the `Shimla Sankalp ‘ of the party in 2003 called for a joint front of all secular forces. Alliances did the trick for the Congress in 2004, bringing it back to power. The flipside of the success in the previous Lok Sabha elections was the party ‘ s diminished presence, especially in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Congress has met with a phenomenal decline in the last more than 20 years in the Hindi heartland, especially in the states of UP and Bihar. The party has lost its space to regional players like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in UP and parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) in Bihar. While in 1984, the Congress had won 83 of the 85 seats in undivided UP and its vote share at that time in the electorally-key state was 50 per cent, in 2004 the party contested 73 of the 80 seats on offer, but could manage to win only nine. In Bihar, the Congress had won 48 of the 54 seats in 1984, but the number slipped to just three out of 40 in 2004. The Congress has not been able to form alliances in UP and Bihar this time. In the changed scenario, it has gone alone in the two crucial states, contesting many more seats that it did in the previous elections. The party has looked at the developments in an optimistic manner. "Everytime we have got into a pre-poll alliance in UP and Bihar, we have seen that we have not been able to grow in those states. The biggest damage to the Congress was done by the 1996 pre-poll alliance with the BSP in UP. Similarly, in Bihar, we supported the RJD and then we did not grow," said a senior Congress leader. "Whatever has happened is good for the Congress, both in UP and in Bihar," he said. Posted By  sonimishra  11:55 hrs Comments(0)       Are you sure you want to delete the post? OK Cancel 30 April, 2009 Vote vs. knots  Politicians have a very strong rival to compete with as they endeavour to grab the attention of the voter in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections -- the wedding season. Parties are worried that voter turnout could be hit, especially on May seven, when the fourth phase of the five-phase elections is scheduled to be held. With May seven being considered an especially auspicious day for marriages to be held in the Hindu calendar, candidates across party lines are making it a point to appeal to the voters not to give the ballot a miss and cast their vote before they participate in wedding festivities. So we have two of the biggest national obsessions -- both colourful and nothing short of being a festival -- competing with each other. Marriage and election were at odds in another way in the Assembly elections in Delhi late last year, with couples wishing to have a registered marriage being asked to put their plans on hold by the registrar ‘ s office as it was busy with preparations for the polls. A couple that went to the office of an assistant district magistrate prior to the Assembly polls was greeted with a computer print-out stating that no applications for marriage registration will be taken for some time as the staff is pre-occupied with election work. When the couple argued with the staff at the district administration court, it was told by an official there: "What is more important, marriage or election?" The staff at the registrar ‘ s office was busy with verification of voters and getting the electoral rolls ready for the elections. Political parties must be hoping that voters take inspiration from a bridegroom who made news recently for voting before he made his way to the wedding venue. Posted By  sonimishra  10:04 hrs Comments(0)       Are you sure you want to delete the post? OK Cancel 24 April, 2009 Migration good news for bogus voters  If you have migrated to another city to work, your name in the voters ‘ list in your native place might provide an avenue for a bogus vote to be cast. The Election Commission has found that the names of migrant voters provides a good opportunity to miscreants to cast bogus votes. The Commission conducted a survey in Uttar Pradesh, covering every polling station in the state, and discovered that a total of 11.45 lakh out of the 85 lakh voters were absent. That is around 7.5 per cent of the total electorate in UP, which is known to contributing in a major way to the migrant population in the country. In some constituencies in eastern UP, the proportion of voters who had migrated out was as high as 25 per cent. If even one out of eight such absentee votes are cast, it could easily turn defeat into victory. Posted By  sonimishra  04:59 hrs Comments(0)       Are you sure you want to delete the post? OK Cancel 20 April, 2009 Real poll action after May 16  "It is not a five-phase election, but a six-phase one," remarked a Congress leader. He further said the sixth phase will in fact be the most important one. He is not wrong. While the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections will be held on May 13, the real action is expected to begin only after the results come out on May 16, and it is this that the Congress leader was referring to. With none of the pre-poll combines predicted to get a majority, the numbers game that will begin after the votes have been counted will indeed prove to be crucial in determining who forms the next government and who will be the next prime minister. It was perhaps with an eye on the post May 16 scenario that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in a somewhat reconciliatory tone about the Left parties, with whom he was involved in a major clash over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The dividing lines between the different alliances are also blurring, with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar sharing dais with both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Third Front leaders. While BJP ‘ s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani indicated that back channel talks were on between his party and the AIADMK, J Jayalalithaa has spoken about circumstances determining her post-poll options. New permutations and combinations are set to come into being after May 16 and no political pundit can afford to hazard a guess as to who will emerge victorious in the Indian Political League. Posted By  sonimishra  09:39 hrs Comments(0)       Are you sure you want to delete the post? OK Cancel More >>