Delhi Assembly Elections 2015: AAP Scripts History, Gives Big Jolt to BJP, Wipes Out Congress

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) scored a landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections on February 10 by winning 67 of the 70 seats leaving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with only three and completely wiping out Congress which failed to win even a single seat – a first. On a vertical slide since May 2014, the Congress hit the rock bottom in the Capital with all its 70 candidates losing the elections. Remember that Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years until December 2013.

A record 67.14 per cent turnout was recorded in the elections on February 7 in which a total of 673 candidates participated. The number of candidates from recognized national and state parties were 296 while 183 candidates belonged to registered parties. There were 194 Independent nominees.

Thought to be a close competitor, the BJP could not garner a double-digit tally, failing miserably to read the signs that were evident from the buzzing AAP poll booths on election day itself. The BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi for the past 16 years, made a gamble by bringing in former IPS officer Kiran Bedi into the party and made her their chief ministerial candidate which is said to have triggered discontent among the party leaders and ranks.

To call the emphatic Delhi win of the AAP merely “historic” is to underestimate the contextual significance of the moment, arguably whose clearest meaning is the contemptuous rejection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s urgent appeals to the Delhi electorate to vote his party in so that his hands may be strengthened.

Positive Aspect

The surprising part of the result is not the victory of the AAP but the huge margin. This clearly indicates that this is not a negative vote. There are two important reasons for the AAP victory. The first is that a great majority of Delhi – especially the deprived – found the 49-day government to be one which had yielded positive results: petty exactions by police and government personnel had disappeared, electricity and water bills were favorably impacted for the consumer. Retrospectively this seems to have produced a sense that AAP provided a representative party of governance and was not just a party of Opposition.

The second important feature is that AAP not only managed to survive the Lok Sabha verdict but actually consolidated their organization. Elected councilors implemented schemes with their allotted money and the conviction of volunteers was energized again by the Delhi Dialogues which brought them into close contact with local needs of especially the underprivileged and produced local manifestos. All of this brought back the involvement with practical activity and the belief in using the political machinery to serve the nation, which is the real core of the conviction that propels the AAP volunteers.

Political Earthquake

International media have described AAP's stunning electoral triumph over the BJP in Delhi as a "political earthquake," taking a jibe at Prime Minister Modi's meteoric rise to the helm by saying -- "After all, what goes up must come down."

The New York Times dubbed BJP's defeat, less than a year after the party's victory in the polls at the centre, as a "smaller political earthquake." "Less than a year after Modi won a historic victory to become India's new prime minister, a smaller political earthquake struck the capital, as partial results indicated that Modi's governing party had been crushed in local elections by a young political organization led by an anti-corruption campaigner (Kejriwal)," the daily highlighted.

The Washington Post termed it as "stunning defeat" at the hands of the "upstart anti-corruption Common Man Party." "The contest was widely viewed as a measure of Modi's political clout here. The bitterly fought election for control of the legislative assembly mark the first political setback to Modi's BJP since he became prime minister in May 2014," the paper stated.

Advantage Women Candidates

Six women leaders have managed to secure a place in the 70-member House, a meager eight percent even as fairer sex accounts for almost 45 percent of the population in the national capital. There were 63 women candidates in this election as against 71 in 2013.

While as many as 66 women candidates were in fray, all the six winners, who have made it to the Assembly, belong to the AAP. They are Rakhi Birla, Bandna Kumari, Saritha Singh, Alka Lambha, Pramila Tokas and Bhavna Gaur.

Interestingly, the three women candidates elected to the Delhi Assembly in 2013 polls were also from AAP -Birla, Bandana Kumari and Veena Anand.

Birla, who was the Cabinet minister for Women and Child, Social Welfare and Languages in Delhi during AAP's 49-day regime, contested from Mangol Puri constituency in West Delhi and defeated Congress' Raj Kumar Chauhan by 22,699 votes.

Elected as an MLA from the Shalimar Bagh constituency in the 2013 Assembly polls, Bandana Kumari emerged victorious by defeating another woman candidate, BJP's Rekha Gupta.

Alka Lamba, a former leader of Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) who had joined AAP in 2013, won from Chandni Chowk constituency, defeating yet another women candidate of BJP, Suman Kumar Gupta, by more than 18,000 votes.

Another women who emerged victorious was Parmila Tokas, an independent municipal councilor. She was fielded from RK Puram constituency, where the party had pitted Shazia Ilmi in the last elections. Ilmi left AAP in 2014 and ultimately joined hands with BJP just before the Delhi elections. AAP's student wing president Sarita Singh won from the Rohtash Nagar Assembly constituency with a margin of 7,874 votes.

While women safety, which is a key concern in the national capital, featured widely in various parties' poll manifestos, when it came to fielding women candidates, the they did not opt for them. A total of 19 women candidates were fielded by three major political parties in the contest – AAP, BJP, and Congress.

BJP had given tickets to maximum number of seven women candidates including its chief ministerial nominee Kiran Bedi, former Congress leader Krishna Tirath and youth face Nupur Sharma.

All the six women candidates of AAP emerged victorious. The least number of women candidates was fielded by the Congress which had given tickets to just five.

Assessment

Undoubtedly, people have given a historic mandate to the AAP this time, carrying it on its shoulders to an absolute majority in the Assembly. This is a sign that people do not want pomp and show, and show of power, but results.

It is a vote not just in favor of Kejriwal but also against the arrogant Modi-Amit Shah duo. The Shah strategy of winning elections has failed. In fact, BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers were annoyed by top-down decision making. An outsider, Bedi's choice as a chief ministerial candidate was a mistake the leadership still does not accept.

Coming on top of a massive hype, the one thing BJP has delivered is a disturbing communal atmosphere in the country and little else that might be tangible. Judging from the kind of people who voted AAP, this factor may just have been decisive, with the middle class intelligentsia making the difference on the margin. The disaster the BJP has encountered would place it on the back foot in the coming state election over the next two years.

Lok Sabha Elections 2014: Modi Becomes New Prime Minister of India

Narendra Modi, who was sworn-in India's 15th prime minister on May 26, brought an unprecedented victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), matched in its intensity and sweep only by the crushing defeat of the Congress in the 16th general elections. The BJP returns to power at the Centre after 10 years. Allies will also be part of the government, though the BJP is not dependent on any for numbers. BJP notched up a comfortable majority of 282 seats on its own and grossed 336 seats with allies in the 543-member house.

The BJP won a simple majority for the first time, only the second time a non-Congress party has done so. The BJP also became the first party since 1984 to get a majority on its own.

India has not had a single party rule since 1989. An Opposition party comes to power in such a manner for the second time, the earlier being the 1977 elections in the wake of Emergency.

BJP Ends Historic 30-Year Journey

It has been a roller coaster ride for BJP in the past 30 years with the saffron party in pole position on May 16 after having a measly two seats in 1984. In stark contrast, the fortunes reversed for the ruling Congress in an unprecedented way as it saw the party’s kitty dwindle from a record 415 during this period with results and trends indicating it may not get more than 50 seats.

The victory for the BJP in the saffron surge is also significant because India has not had a single party rule for 25 long years since 1989 during which coalition or minority governments have been in power.

A Modi wave has catapulted the BJP to power after 10 long years in the opposition with its tally set to more than double from 117 in an election which saw the BJP prime ministerial candidate secure a huge mandate. This is for the second time in Independent India that an Opposition party has come to power in such a manner, the earlier being the 1977 election that was held after the infamous Emergency era that brought the Janata Party to power.

The BJP came to power for the fourth time since it was founded in 1980 after the split in the Janata Party. Its first government in 1996 lasted for a merely 13 days and was dubbed 13-day wonder by the Congress.

In 1998, the next government of the BJP via the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) route lasted 13 months while in 1999 it again came to power leading the NDA in the backdrop of the Kargil conflict with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee projecting it as a victory over Pakistan. The largest number of 182 seats was won by BJP in this election.

In fact, the BJP suffered its worst defeat in 1984 after the formation of the party. It could win only two seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha in the wake of the sympathy wave for the Congress following assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Even Vajpayee was among several top opposition leaders who had lost in the election in which the BJP had secured one seat each from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat respectively. For the Congress, it is the lowest tally, which is less than the lowest ever of 114 in 1999.

Incidentally, both the record lows have come under the stewardship of Sonia Gandhi who has the distinction of being the longest serving president of the Grand Old Party.

Sonia has been at the helm of the Congress since 1998 after the party ousted Sitaram Kesari from the top post in the wake of the party losing the Lok Sabha election that year.

The results have come as a rude jolt for the Congress given the fact that it had been in power for 10 long years via the coalition route. Sonia started the first experiment of Congress sharing power at the Centre in May 2004 after remaining in political wilderness for eight long years.

While Narasimha Rao came to power in 1991 in the wake of assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, he ran a minority government for some time. Manmohan Singh, who was brought by Rao as his Finance Minister, ushered in the economic reforms that changed the face of India.

Incidentally, Modi, chief minister of Gujarat since 2001, used the development plank to the hilt by projecting the Gujarat Model that appeared to have struck a chord with people hit hard by rising prices and corruption and growing joblessness in the backdrop of a global slowdown.

Modi’s detractors raked up the 2002 Gujarat riots repeatedly accusing him of “zehar ki kheti” and polarisation of voters.

The election was also significant as the Left parties, fighting with their back to the wall, are set to register their lowest tally.

Modi Factor

Carefully scripted by his crack team, the ‘Modi vs Rest’ is a story that could have easily backfired. After the appointment of Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013, the question that arose was whether this poll would reverse the trend of several general polls since 1989. The election for the ninth Lok Sabha that saw Vishwanath Pratap Singh becoming Prime Minister was the last time when a single issue held sway over a considerable part of India. Though the polls in 1984 had a greater national footprint, being held as they were after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the issue of corruption in high place played out significantly in 1989. But thereafter, all polls became an aggregate of several local polls, at times aggregated either constituency by constituency in some extreme instances, or at state and sub-regional levels on most occasions.
Every single election since 1991 has not been influenced significantly by a single issue. If at all they were, barring in 2009 when the Congress was given an improved mandate following a string of pro-poor policies of the government, parliamentary polls were affected by a negative vote, like in 2004 when the BJP-led government was voted out. By the middle of 2013, however, it appeared that the emergence of Modi as the electoral mascot of BJP had led to a situation where endorsing or rejecting him would become the single-largest issue in this election. In the early stages, the election had not appeared to be becoming a virtual referendum on Modi, but by the end of the campaign this is what appears to be the case. It is therefore not wrong to say that this election can be described in one word — Modi.

The entire campaign of the BJP has been based on a singular principle and been pitted against the syncretic nature of India’s political culture. The issue of growth has been framed in the context of limitations of a coalition government. For a considerable period of time Modi has suggested that a growth oriented political system where rights are available in limited doses is a better bet than a messy democracy. When he began his march to Delhi in serious intent after the Assembly polls of December 2012, Modi’s first target was diluting the collective leadership of the BJP. Just as he reduced the party to one with only one individual being in charge, he has asked for a similar mandate from the electorate.

Tsunami in Uttar Pradesh

Of the crucial 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has won 71 on its own and its alliance partner Apna Dal has brought in another two. This reduces the Opposition parties in UP to seven seats altogether — shared by the Yadavs and Gandhis.

Not even Modi's close associate Amit Shah had perdicted such large-scale victory. He had given 50 to 55 seats to the BJP and predicted that the BSP will come second.

Both his prophecies were way off the mark as the BSP shockingly drew a blank. However, it is hard to claim that Uttar Pradesh took Modi to unmatched victory. Even without UP, Modi was well on his way to rule the country.

The UP verdict is, however, a clear paradigm shift. The tools which had been in use to assess and analyse political and sociological situations in the state have suddenly become ineffectual. At the moment, all analysis based on intricate caste and sub-caste calculations, community and regional variations have been unable to adequately explain the results.

Even at the height of the Ram Mandir movement, the BJP had managed to win 54 seats and account for 33 percent of the vote share.

In 2014, without any ostensible external factor, the BJP has won 71+2 seats and its vote share is 42.3 percent. This decisive vote for Modi is clearly a positive vote for change. It is the yearning of the common people for respite from their daily drudgery of power failures, potholed roads, corruption seeping the system, scams and the general feeling of despondency that has been plaguing the governments both at the national and the state level.

Still, it is not for a party like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)  that promised a new kind of transparent polity. Even its convener Arvind Kejriwal failed to win. More surprisingly, months of hard work of Kumar Vishwas in Amethi did not get him even the second slot.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) managed to win five family seats, of which Mulayam Singh Yadav would have to forgo one, leaving the party with only four. This puts a big question mark on the Akhilesh Yadav-led government in the state. Six ministers, 13 MLAs and even the Vidhan Sabha Speaker have bitten the dust. But, the chief minister would have to tread carefully to contain the damage as BJP Jhansi MP Uma Bharti has already hinted at 40 SP MLAs being in touch with the BJP.

Similarly, all seven UPA-II ministers from UP have not just lost but (except one) failed to save their deposits. The other significant aspect is that the BJP has won all 17 reserved seats, indicating an important shift in the Dalit vote. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which saw itself emerging as a 'balance of power' after the elections is completely routed.

Of course, credit for the BJP's stellar performance in the State which sends the largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha also goes in large measure to the party's in-charge of the State and Modi's confidant, Amit Shah, who created magic there with his organizational skills and deft exploitation of the people’s anger with the SP, the BSP and the Congress-led UPA. The win, incidentally, means that both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are under siege, and the next Assembly election to the State could see a change as dramatic as the one we are witness to now.

Opponents Crushed in Bihar

The BJP-led NDA crushed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party Janata Dal (United) and the RJD-Congress combine by winning 31 of the state's 40 seats. The Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal combine in the state won seven seats and the ruling JD (U) won only two. Nitish Kumar has resigned a day after his party suffered a drubbing in the general elections.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi was defeated by BJP candidate and former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Saran by 44,000 votes, while their daughter Misa Bharti was defeated in Pataliputra by BJP's Ram Kirpal Yadav by 42,000 votes. RJD candidate Pappu Yadav defeated JD (U) President Sharad Yadav in Madhepura. Congress leader Mohammad Asrarul Haque won from Muslim-majority Kishanganj. Pappu Yadav's wife Ranjeet Ranjan of the Congress won from Supaul.

Spectacular Wins in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra

Riding on the “Gujarat pride” wave, Modi led his party to a spectacular victory in his home state of Gujarat, making a clean sweep of all 26 seats throwing on the wayside a former chief minister and three members of the outgoing Manmohan Singh cabinet.

Former Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, once a colleague of Modi in the state BJP, who before the election claimed he saw “coming of the third UPA ministry” and expected the Congress to win at least 16 seats in the state, was himself biting the dust at his Sabarkantha constituency in north Gujarat.

While Modi himself defeated All-India Congress Committee general secretary Madhusudan Mistry, a close confidant of the party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, by a near-record margin of over 5.20 lakh votes in Vadodara, three ministers of state in the outgoing central cabinet, Dinsha Patel (Kheda), Bharatsinh Solanki (Anand) and Tushar Chaudhary (Bardoli) also failed to open the account for the Congress in the state.

In Rajasthan, the made a clean sweep in Rajasthan by winning all the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the desert state. The Congress, on the other hand, recorded its worst defeat in the state’s history. The Congress won 20 seats in 2009 and the party’s lowest tally was one in the post-Emergency 1977 elections.

Prominent Congress leaders who lost included union ministers Sachin Pilot (Ajmer), Girja Vyas (Chittorgarh), Bhanwar Jitendra Singh (Alwar) and Chandresh Kumari (Jodhpur), and party leaders Namonarain Meena (Dausa) and former India cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin (Tonk-Sawai Madhopur).

In Maharashtra, Modi wave has swept away the ruling Congress-NCP coalition. Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the five-party alliance led by the BJP has won 41 seats.

Among the stalwarts of the ruling front who bit the dust today include union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Praful Patel and Milind Deora. Other prominent losers include Chhagan Bhujbal and Padamsinh Patil of the NCP and Priya Dutt and Sanjay Nirupam from the Congress.

Controversial leader Ashok Chavan of the Congress contesting from Nanded and NCP boss Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule contesting from Baramati are just two prominent faces to win from the ruling front. Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has turned out to be a total flop in the current Lok Sabha elections.

AIADMK Gets Third Place

Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK rode on a Jayalalithaa wave to gobble up 37 of the state's 39 Lok Sabha seats to become one of the largest parties in the 2014 elections. The wave was such that there will be no Congress or DMK representative from the state in the Lok Sabha for the next five years as things stand now.

Many of the prominent candidates of these two parties as well as from others crashed to defeat. They included DMK's A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, TKS Elangovan, T.R. Baalu and Congress' Karti P.Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, EVKS Elangovan and others.

MDMK's candidates including its leader Vaiko, candidates from the two communist parties and AAP also lost. However, PMK's Anbumani Ramadoss contesting from Dharmapuri and BJP's Pon Radhakrishan from Kanyakumari were the two victorious survivors. Both parties are in alliance.

Mamata Magic Worked in West Bengal

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee swept West Bengal by winning 34 of the 42 seats in the elections. The BJP, which had no political base in the state, won two seats.

The Congress retained four of the six seats, but the CPM and other Left Front parties put up the worst show by winning only two seats against the 15 it had won in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Reasons Behind Congress Debacle

The Congress got a crushing defeat in all the seven Lok Sabha seats primarily because of anti-incumbency at the Center coupled with the shifting of its vote bank toward the newbie AAP. Also, there is a feeling among a large section of people that the Congress MPs in the city were not easily accessible to the common people.

Many in the party feel that the Congress was defeated as its candidates did not go for aggressive campaigning. What is bothering the Congress leadership the most is the fact that it has suffered defeat in all the 70 Assembly segments, which fall under the purview of the seven Lok Sabha seats.

The downslide of the Congress in Delhi began in the December 2013 Assembly elections when the party could log its victory in only eight of the 70-member Assembly. The party, which had won all the seven seats in the previous Lok Sabha elections, were pushed to the third position in these Lok Sabha elections. Even the one-year-old AAP, which got an electrifying victory in the Assembly elections, stood second in the parliamentary poll.

It is said if the votes polled by the AAP were added to the tally of the Congress candidates, all of them would have easily made it to the Lok Sabha.“Delhiites were fed up with the scams which hogged the newspaper headlines every day. More to it, middle and lower middle class had to face high inflation in all essential commodities. That is why people voted for a change. Because of polarization, Muslims voted in a large numbers for the AAP. That is another factor which led to Congress defeat.

Assessment

The 2014 elections have seen the incumbent United Progressive Alliance crash to an ignominious defeat with the Congress party, already on a downward spiral in several elections, now humiliatingly reduced to a double-digit figure in Parliament, its worst electoral tally since Independence. An indefensibly uninspiring campaign led by Rahul Gandhi failed to rally a young and impatient electorate. The BJP’s landslide victory, almost entirely attributable to the sweeping effect of the Modi wave across India, reflects the intensity of the desire for more effective governance. The rising public anger as a result of the UPA’s policy paralysis, stalled economic growth and worst of all, the series of corruption scandals, created a hunger for change especially among young Indians who see Modi as a leader symbolizing their expectations of fast economic growth unshackled from red tape and corruption.

In the era of coalition politics, no one saw the possibility of the BJP getting a clear mandate. The UPA always blamed coalition compulsions whenever it was accused of making any compromise with national interests. Now that the people have given a free hand to Modi, they ought to have huge expectations of him. It is time for Modi to deliver.

Record High for BJP
* Modi becomes new prime minister of India

*  BJP comes to power for the fourth time since its foundation in 1980 after the split in the Janata Party. Its first government in 1996 lasted 13 days

*  In 1998, the next BJP govt via NDA route lasted 13 months. In 1999, it again came to power leading NDA in the backdrop of Kargil war

*  BJP won the largest number of 182 seats in 1999

*  Party had its worst defeat in 1984 after its formation. It won only two seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination

* Atal Bihari Vajpayee was among several top opposition leaders who lost in 1984.

Congress Disaster

* It is the lowest tally for Cong, less than 114 in 1999

*  Both the record lows came under Sonia's stewardship. She is the longest serving president of the grand old party

*  Sonia Gandhi is at the helm of the Congress since 1998 after the party ousted Sitaram Kesari from the top post

*  She started the first experiment of sharing power at the Centre in May 2004 after remaining in political wilderness for eight years

General Elections 2014: Country’s Biggest Ever Democratic Exercise Sees Five-Week Process

Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath announced on March 5 that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections will be held in five weeks. Voting for the 543-member Parliament is set to take place in nine phases until May 12 with counting scheduled four days later on May 16.

The 2014 polls will see 814 million adults eligible to vote, from the remote Himalayas in the north to India's tropical southern tip -- 100 million more than last time in 2009. The coming country’s biggest ever democratic exercise is expected to be fought largely on a platform of economic revival.

Long-Ardent Process

Elections will be conducted in phases on April 7, April 9, April 10, April 12, April 17, April 24, April 30, May 7 and May 12. The biggest phase will be on April 17 when 122 constituencies across 13 states go to the elections.

With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir, states in North India will go to the polls in separate yet single phases. While April 30 will be election day in Punjab, people in Haryana, Chandigarh and the National Capital of Delhi will vote on April 10. The hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will see voting on May 7.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the polls will be held in five phases on April 10 (Jammu), April 17 (Udhampur), April 24 (Anantnag), April 30 (Srinagar) and May 7 (Baramulla and Ladakh). It is believed that multi-phase polling was needed in Jammu and Kashmir due to security considerations. While Ladakh borders China and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the constituencies of Jammu and Baramulla abut PoK. Andhra Pradesh will have both Lok Sabha and Assembly polls as an undivided state and candidates elected will automatically become legislators of their respective states after Telangana comes into being on June 2.

Sampath said the nine-phase polling and the entire process -- from today to counting of votes on May 16 -- will be over in 72 days, three days less than the previous election. The number of voters will be almost 10 crore more than the 2009 Lok Sabha election. More than 2.3 crore enlisted voters are in the 18-19 age group.

Model Code of Conduct

The model code of conduct, a set of legally binding dos and don’ts, became operational with immediate effect with the announcement of the 16th Lok Sabha election schedule.

The model code of conduct bars the government from using public money to announce new schemes and projects, came into force following the announcement of the schedule for elections to the 16th Lok Sabha and simultaneous Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha.

The code bars ministers from combining official visits with electioneering work and bans the use of official machinery for electioneering and advertisements at the cost of the exchequer for partisan coverage of political news.

There can be no announcement of financial grants or promise of roads and water supply. Transfer of officials is banned.

Parties’ Efforts

The ruling Congress and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are making efforts to woo host of smaller parties. Leaders of 11 regional parties have come together to form a Third Front against the Congress and BJP.

Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made a spectacular debut in the recent Delhi assembly polls, will also contest the Lok Sabha polls. Opinion polls tip Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, as frontrunner to be the country's prime minister. However, opinion polls show Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat when anti-Muslim riots left more than 1,000 dead in 2002, holds a large advantage over his bitter rival.

Highlights of the General Elections 2014

* The Election Commission is mandated to finish the election process before May 31
* 2014 Lok Sabha polls likely to be conducted in 9 phases
* Prime requisite of general polls is up to date electoral rolls, final rolls have been published
* People voting these general elections is 814 million; 10 crore more than 2009 elections
* Special camps will be set up across country to give electorate final chance to enroll
* There will be approx 9.3 lakh polling stations in country, an increase of 12 percent from last time
* EPIC distribution which was 82 percent last time has already reached 96 percent this time
* Model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect
* Photo voter slips will be introduced these elections
* Use of money power matter of concern for poll panel; there will be sufficient checking mechanism
* First date of poll shall be on April 7, in 2 states
* Second election date is April 9, in 5 states
* Third election date: April 10, in 14 states
* Fourth election date: April 12, in 3 states
* Fifth election day: April 17, in 13 states and Union Territories
* Sixth election date: April 24, in 12 states
* Seventh election date: April 30, in 9 states
* Eighth election date: May 7, in 7 states
* Ninth election date: May 12, in 3 states
* Counting of general elections is in one day on May 16
* Polling in 543 constituencies to be covered in 9 election dates from April 7 to May 12

Naxal-Hit Areas

* All naxal-hit areas will be covered in a single day across India
* Andhra Pradesh: April 30 and  May 7
* Arunachal Pradesh: April 9
* Assam: April 7, 12, and 24
* Bihar: April 10, 17, 24, 30; May 7 and 12
* Chhattisgarh: April 10, 17, and 24
* Goa: April 17
* Gujarat: April 30
* Haryana: April 10
* Himachal Pradesh: May 7
* Jammu and Kashmir: April 10, 17, 24, 30; May 7
* Jharkhand: April 10, 17, and 24
* Karnataka: April 17
* Kerala: April 10
* Madhya Pradesh: April 10, 17, and 24
* Mahrashtra: April 24
* Manipur: April 9 and 17
* Meghalaya: April 9
* Mizoram: April 9
* Nagaland: April 9
* Odisha: April 10 and 17
* Punjab: April 30
* Rajasthan: April 17 and 24
* Sikkim: April 12

Assessment

To sum up, it can be said that the 2014 general elections will be remembered not for the logistic difficulties and the sheer size and magnitude of the exercise. After ten years of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), this election will see corruption and governance as major issues, along with livelihood and safety concerns. The BJP, by announcing Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, is seeking to turn this election into a vote for a strong, able government that does not waver in decision-making. Unmistakably, the UPA coalition, with many of the allies pulling in different directions, and some of the ministers caught in corruption cases, has come to be seen as weak and ineffectual.

The BJP holds an edge, if one were to go by the recent findings of various opinion surveys. The party's prime ministerial candidate, Modi, appears to be a firm favorite, as most young and first-time voters are said to be inclined to his brand of assertive governance and, therefore, to the BJP. However, the Congress is also hoping to garner the support of young voters on the strength of the party’s projection of Rahul Gandhi as its youth mascot.

What we can expect now is a renewed and frenzied attempt by the parties and their leaders to strike pre-poll alliances, finalize their candidates accordingly, and hit the ground running. There is no more time to lose. Every political party will be eyeing not just its traditional vote-bank but also the new voters, a substantial 10 crore in number, according to the poll panel. Poll pundits agree that the first-time voters hold the key, which is why parties are going overboard to woo them. In addition,  also tapping into the voter fatigue with the UPA would be the new entrant, the AAP, with its focus on institutionalized responses to ending corruption and delivering services.

Nevertheless, the 16th Lok Sabha elections will provide an opportunity for the people to discard the discredited and endorse the performers. However, Indian elections have been known to throw up surprises. Time will better tell the story.

Mohammed Hamid Ansari Reelected Vice President of India: Becomes Second Person To Get Two Terms in Country’s Second Highest Office

United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) candidate Mohammed Hamid Ansari was reelected vice president of India on August 7, defeating NDA’s candidate Jaswant Singh by a large margin of 252 votes. As expected, the election of Ansari for a second term as the vice president was noncontroversial and smooth. The surprise, if any, was not in the outcome, but in the political churning that overflowed from the presidential election. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made an overambitious attempt to disrupt Pranab Mukherjee’s bid for the presidency, this was an occasion to recover lost ground. The party sought to first retain its old allies such as the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal (United), and then win over non-Congress allies such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, instead of looking to poach disgruntled elements within the UPA. The less ambitious strategy was not intended to win the election for its candidate, Jaswant Singh, but to keep the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) united and in fighting mode for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Seventy-five-year old former IFS officer, Ansari becomes the second person after Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, India’s first vice president (and second president), to get two terms in the second highest office.

Ansari got 490 votes, against Singh’s 238, of the 736 votes polled. Eight votes were declared invalid. Altogether 787 members of two Houses of Parliament were eligible to vote.

Ansari, a Padma Shri recipient, was a surprise choice for vice president in 2007, proposed by the Left, then giving outside support to the UPA government. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had named Ansari as the second choice of her party for the presidential election after Pranab Mukherjee. The Left had no problem supporting him again.

Among those who did not vote were ailing Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, admitted to a Chennai hospital, and BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha, recovering from surgery, in addition to 21 BJD members, 11 from TDP and six from the Congress and supporting parties.

Others who did not vote included two nominated MPs, two each from the BJP, AGP, RSP and TRS and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, one of two YSR Congress members.

Ansari will once again be the chairman of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament) by virtue of his election as vice president.

Career Profile

Born in Kolkata (Calcutta) on April 1, 1937, while his family hailed from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, Ansari completed his schooling from St. Edwards High School in Shimla, attended the St. Xavier's College, University of Calcutta, and pursued MA in Political Science at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), where he also got his doctorate degree and worked as lecturer.

Ansari – the grand-nephew of former Congress President Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, a leader of the Indian independence movement – is also a reputed West Asia scholar. He has authored a book-- Travelling Through Conflict. He has written books on Palestine, Iraq and Iran. Some of his views have run contrary to India's official position. He had questioned India's vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran's nuclear program where the country voted against Iran.

Ansari also upheld a decision as NCM Chairperson when in 2007 he agreed with the position taken by St. Stephens College, Delhi, to earmark seats for Dalit Christians.

Ansari was chairman of a working group on "Confidence building measures across segments of society in the State," established by the Second round Table Conference of the Prime Minister on Jammu and Kashmir in 2006. The report of the working group was adopted by the Third round Table in April 2007.

In the past, a suave and sober Ansari has served in many positions, including as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Indian High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1961.

Ansari became vice chancellor of the AMU in May, 2000 and held the post until March, 2002. He is also known for his role in ensuring compensation to the victims of the Gujarat riots and pushing for a complete re-look into the relief and rehabilitation for riot victims since 1984. He is also known for his strong views on burning issues.

"The language used by the Pope sounds like that of his 12th-century counterpart who ordered the crusades... It surprises me because the Vatican has a very comprehensive relationship with the Muslim world," Ansari had said in 2006 as Chairman, Minorities Commission of India, in reaction to Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam.

As chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Ansari faced criticism when the Opposition parties expressed unhappiness at the manner in which he “abruptly” adjourned the House on the night of December 29, 2011 (Winter Session) during the debate on the Lokpal Bill.

Advantage UPA

The result of the election was a foregone conclusion as the numbers were stacked in favor of the ruling alliance. It managed to get the backing of its estranged ally Trinamool Congress and the parties extending it outside support. These include arch rivals, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party. The Left parties also supported Ansari.

Undoubtedly, the importance of the reelection of Ansari as the country's vice president lies not just in the United Progressive Alliance managing to get its candidate through with a convincing margin, after sending its presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee to Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House).

Both these victories have undoubtedly come as a morale-booster for an otherwise beleaguered ruling combine, battered over the last two years by scams and crises. There was a time two months ago when the ability of the UPA to get its candidates elected as President and vice president was under serious doubt.

Nor does Ansari's import lie merely in him being able to successfully transit from being viewed as a nominee of the Left parties -- which had supported him for vice presidentship in 2007 and they had their way because of the clout they carried in UPA I -- to being adopted as the candidate of the Congress, and the UPA.

Assembly Elections 2012: SP Storms Back to Power in Uttar Pradesh, SAD-BJP Creates History in Punjab, Congress Scores Hat Trick in Manipur

The Election Commission has declared results of the 2012 Assembly elections to five States. The Congress has come a cropper despite the party’s high decibel campaign in Uttar Pradesh, which was led by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and a galaxy of senior leaders, while in Goa the party has failed to reach, leave alone cross, the double-digit mark in the 40-member House, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sweeping the elections.
In fact, the most disastrous performance of the Congress has been in Punjab where the party had taken its victory for granted, fed by glowing feedback about its prospects from a host of sources, not excluding sections of the media.
In Uttar Pradesh it is Akhilesh Singh Yadav, the 39-year-old heir apparent of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, in Goa it is Manohar Parrikar and in Punjab it is Sukhbir Singh. More important, voters have given their preferred parties a clear majority.
The SP’s landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh was a reflection that the electorate had turned the tables on the Bahujan Samaj Party for non-performance just the way the latter had mauled the SP in the 2007 assembly elections. The fact that both the national parties—the BJP and the Congress—failed to make an impression in Uttar Pradesh was a reflection of the desire of people at large to throw out autocratic Mayawati for which they felt the SP was her most credible adversary. The spectacular victory of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine in Punjab where the anti-incumbency factor did not work in favour of the Congress was the result of sustained hard work in wooing the electorate. In Goa, the BJP’s impressive win was a reaction to the corrupt rule of the Congress, while in Manipur, the Congress sway was never in doubt.
Uttar Pradesh
The SP — with its campaign led by Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav — swept Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) out of power in Uttar Pradesh and left the Congress reeling.
The SP, romped home after winning 224 of the 403 Assembly seats.The SP juggernaut reduced Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati from 206 seats in the outgoing House to just 79. The BJP’s tally came down from 51 seats to 47; while the Congress, which had 22 MLAs earlier, managed to add only six more to its kitty. Its alliance partner, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, won nine seats.
Akhilesh Yadav is clearly the man of the moment at the SP headquarters. The graduation from ‘bhaiyaji’ to ‘adhyakshji’ (state president) and now the possibility of ‘mukhya mantriji’ has been a long struggle for the three-time Kannauj MP. This was a battle he fiercely fought both on the streets and inside the family quarters, emerging the winner on both fronts.
In fact, the Congress not merely lost Punjab, but was also routed by the BJP in Goa. In the hill state of Uttarakhand, a clear majority eluded both the Congress and the BJP. Pre-poll surveys had indicated a clear victory for the Congress. The only consolation for the beleaguered Congress was its victory in Manipur, where it managed to retain power.
The Congress’ defeat was all the more severe as it could manage to win only two of the 10 Assembly segments which comprise the twin Lok Sabha constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi, the party’s pocket boroughs since the days of Indira Gandhi. Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise was trounced in Farrukhabad, in third place after an Independent candidate and the BJP.
BSP supremo Mayawati was perhaps the first to suspect a huge anti-incumbency factor working against her government. She thus went to great lengths in an attempt to salvage her party with a massive ‘clean-up exercise’ involving throwing out of 23 ministers and dozens of legislators and replacing more than 100 sitting MLAs weeks before the Assembly elections.
That the SP surpassed the BJP's1991 tally of 221 seats achieved during the Ram wave speaks for itself. The BSP, which was uniquely placed with a committed core vote, has only itself to blame for squandering away a rare opportunity. Mayawati restored law and order and instituted several positive measures, especially towards the uplift of the Dalit community. But her achievements faded when measured against the corruption of the administration and her own perceived arrogance. In the end, the statues she built for herself became a metaphor for the regime's obsessive self-interest.
The belated damage control to distance her party from the corruption of its leaders did not cut ice with the state’s voters. The magic which she had woven in 2007 with so-called social engineering clearly remained an empty slogan this time.
Of the 403 seats, Mayawati had this time given tickets for 88 (21.83 per cent) to the Dalits, 113 (28 per cent) to OBCs, 85 (21.09 per cent) to Muslims and 77 (19.10 per cent) to Brahmins, 33 (8.18 per cent) to Rajputs and the remaining to those from communities like the Kayasths, Vaishyas and even Punjabis.
Among the many surprises that this election threw up was the Congress being wiped out from the party's so-called fiefdom of Rae Bareli and Amethi where the Gandhi-Nehru family had put its personal prestige at stake. The most embarrassing result was in Congress President Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli where the party did not win even one of the five Assembly seats. In Amethi, the constituency of Rahul Gandhi, the party managed to salvage two seats of Jagdishpur and Tiloi while conceding to the SP the remaining three seats of Amethi, Gauriganj and Salon.
Punjab
The SAD-BJP alliance made history by overcoming anti-incumbency to retain power for the second consecutive term, thus creating history in the Punjab electoral politics. By winning 56 seats on its own and with its alliance partner BJP winning 12 seats, this will be the first time in Punjab’s history that a ruling party has been voted back to power.
By wrestling 68 of the 117 Assembly sets, the Akali BJP combine has got a formidable lead over its main rival, Congress, which has won 46 seats. While three independents have won at the hustings, the Third Front under the banner of “Sanjha Morcha” has failed to get any seat.
The People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) which was part of the third front failed to open its account and its president Manpreet Singh Badal lost both Gidderbaha and Maur seats. In fact he was third on both these two seats. The SAD-BJP alliance won the contest, but several of its heavyweights fell. This includes Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and ministers, Hira Singh Gabria, Sucha Singh Langha, Tikshan Sud, Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Satpal Gosain. Arunesh Kumar, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Upinderjit Kaur, besides others.
It was only a one per cent swing in votes that gave the SAD - BJP alliance a gain of 22 seats. The SAD-BJP alliance polled 42 per cent votes with the Congress getting 41 per cent of the vote share. The PPP got six per cent votes that damaged the Congress more than it could harm the Akali Dal. Independents and others according to initial reports secured 11 percent votes that upset many poll calculations.
Manipur
The Congress stormed back to power in Manipur for the third consecutive time with a clear majority, helped by a fragmented opposition. Manipur came as the only solace for the Congress which clinched 36 of 52 seats in the 60-member house and was leading in five of the remaining eight seats.
Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh won from Thoubal and his wife O Landhoni Devi from Khangabok.
The Trinamool Congress, part of an 11-party Peoples Democratic Alliance which came into being very recently, sprang a surprise winning seven of the 48 seats it contested. It had a sole member in the outgoing House.
Other partners of the alliance together with the Trinamool Congress were able to secure only 16 seats. The Manipur State Congress party won four, the Naga Peoples Front three and NCP and LJP won a seat each.
The BJP which contested 19 seats drew a blank. The CPI, which was a former coalition partner of the Congress in the erstwhile Secular Democratic Front failed to win a single seat.
Uttarakhand
The Congress has been set to emerge as the single largest party in Uttarakhand, enjoying an edge against ruling the BJP in a nail-biting finish for half-way mark in the elections to the 70-member Assembly.
Out of the 60 results declared so far, Congress won 27 seats and was ahead in five others while the BJP bagged 28 constituencies and led in three.
The biggest setback for the BJP was the defeat of Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri who was defeated by S.S. Negi of the Congress from Kotdwar seat by 4,632 votes.
The BSP won three seats and three independents emerged successful, thus positioning themselves as possible kingmakers. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-Panwar (UKD-P) won one seat.
Goa
The Congress suffered its worst-ever defeat in the Goa Assembly elections. The BJP, riding the anti-incumbency wave against the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) “corruption, misgovernance,” won a clear majority with 21 seats in the 40-member House. The BJP's ally, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), won 3 seats. Two Independents supported by the BJP also won.
So severe was the mauling for the ruling coalition that as many as eight of the 11 Ministers, including both NCP Ministers, were defeated. While the Congress won just 9 out of 33 seats it contested, the NCP failed to get even one of the seven it contested. Five independents, two of them Congress rebels, and two MLAs of the Goa Vikas Party (GVP), a regional outfit, also won capitalising on the anti-Congress mood.
The five independents who won are Vijay Sardesai in Fatorda, Naresh Sawal (Bicholim), both Congressmen denied tickets; Benjamin Silva (Velim) and Avertano Furtado (Navelim), both supported by the BJP, and Rohan Khavtye from Porvorim.
So decisive was the mandate for the BJP-MGP combine, following a very high turnout of nearly 83 per cent, that except for Micky Pacheco, former Tourism Minister (Nuvem), and Caetano R. Silva (Benaulim), who won on the GVP ticket, no other regional outfit or new entrants like the Trinamool Congress or independents fielded by village groups could make any adverse impact.
The BJP — which hitherto got only Hindu votes, while the nearly 27 per cent Catholic population looked at it with suspicion and traditionally rallied behind the Congress-NCP alliance — for the first time found a massive mandate from across the communities.
Other Perspective

Undoubtedly, the 2012 Assembly elections have been free and fair, and the Election Commission deserves all the kudos. But when money, caste and religion come into play and make a mockery of polls, can they be called free and fair?
The poll results for the state Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur cannot hold much cheer for the Congress, which heads United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. Barring the state in the Northeast, where the party retained its government with a thumping victory, in the other states its performance has been well below par.
The UPA government had come under considerable pressure on a variety of counts for the past one in particular — the high prices of goods of everyday consumption, the breaking of corruption scandals which fed the anti-Congress Anna Hazare campaign whose reverberations were felt throughout the country, and the political oneupmanship of UPA partners, particularly the Trinamul Congress, which stopped the government from pushing a policy quotient that might have brought credit to the government and the Congress as a party. For the Congress, the negative implications of these developments have not been politically neutralised through face-saving poll results at the state level in elections taking place approximately half way through the second term of the UPA.
Demand of the Situation
All eyes will now be on the Manmohan Singh government at the Center which has run half its term. The UPA has indeed been in a state of siege with a surfeit of corruption scandals sullying its image. If the Congress-led combine was looking for redemption from this round of assembly elections, the results are a major disappointment. The fact that the SP does not need Congress support in the State would render its support to the UPA uncertain. In the event of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress pulling the rug from under UPA’s feet, the federal government could face a crisis of survival if the SP support is not forthcoming.
The common people have been unsparing in their verdict on several outgoing ministers, refusing to elect them. Several Congress heavyweights, including the outgoing Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, have also been rejected. Personal nominees of former chief minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who is said to have arm twisted the party into fielding them, have lost and so have the young faces from the Youth Congress, foisted ostensibly at the insistence of Rahul Gandhi.
However, that is not how the people will perceive the performance of the Congress whose campaign was led from the front by Rahul Gandhi. Bagging 28 seats for the party after addressing 218 election rallies in 48 days is not something that he can flaunt as electoral success.
It can be said that the present Assembly election results as stunning would be an understatement given that incredible stories have emerged in at least three of the five States that went to the polls over the past six weeks. In other words, the verdict is a devastating blow to the Congress.
Results At A Glance
Uttar Pradesh: (403) SP 225, BSP 79, BJP 47, Congress 28, RLD 9, Others 15
Punjab: (seats 117) SAD 56, BJP 12, Congress: 46, Others 3
Manipur: (60) Congress 42, AITC 7, NPF 4, MSCP 5, LJSP 1
Uttarakhand: (70) Congress 32, BJP 31, BSP 3, Others 4
Goa: (40) BJP 21, Congress 9, MGP 3, Others 7

Indian Parliament Accepts Anna Hazare's Demands

After being reviled for its self-serving ways and incorrigible politicking, the political class delivered when it mattered. Displaying an unerring big-day temperament, political parties surpassed themselves as Parliament gave Anna Hazare a massive victory.
Sensing the public mood, political egos were largely in check. MPs drove home the humbling knowledge that politicians were lagging their constituents. The leaders had become the led.
Agreed Points
After over eight hours of debate around the structure of the Lokpal Bill, the Government and the Opposition in both the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Parliament) and Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament) came together to agree “in-principle” to the three major demands the activist had raised in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 26 August as a condition to end his protest.
In doing so, the Parliament, which sat for the longest hours this monsoon session today, paved the way for the Gandhian to end his fast. Anna responded late night after government’s emissary and minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced the day’s developments amid cheering and roaring crowds at the Ramlila Grounds. “We have won the battle but the war remains. This is your victory. I will end the fast tomorrow in the presence of all of you,” Anna said to his supporters.
Earlier, the two Houses agreed that the anti-graft law, to be effective, must cover corruption by lower bureaucracy through appropriate mechanisms; must have an inbuilt grievance redress system which Anna calls the citizens’ charter and should provide for enabling laws to establish Lokayuktas in states on the lines of the Lokpal at the Centre.
The debate ended amidst members thumping their desks to applaud the agreement which Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee summed up as “the sense of two Houses” which would now be conveyed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice for its consideration.
Hazare Breaks 12-Day-Long Protest Fast
A day after his 12-day-long fast for a strong Lokpal culminated into a victory for both the civil society as well as Parliament, anti-corruption crusader Hazare on Sunday ended his hunger strike. Anna broke his fast by drinking coconut water with honey, given to him by two girls - five-year-old Simran and Ikra.
Addressing the crowd at Ramlila Maidan after ending his fast, the social activist described it as a victory of every Indian. He also described it as a victory of the media for waking up the people of this country.
Vowing his fight will continue, the Gandhian said the anti-corruption movement was a lesson for the world to learn as to how to wage a nonviolent battle. Anna said the movement instilled trust in us that we can remove corruption from this country.
Asking people to be alert and keep a watch on the Lokpal process, Anna said the movement would have to restart if Parliament fails to pass a strong Lokpal Bill. Anna said it is the power of the people that made Parliament take a decision on Lokpal.
Leaders’ Reactions
Some leaders did hit back at civil society, warning that calling politicians names could draw retaliatory action. Others blamed the media's 24x7 focus for nurturing the agitation. But most were quick to accept that the people's anger was real and needed to be seen as genuine disgust with corruption.
Congress and BJP leaders, who usually do not pass up a chance to have a go at each other, seriously addressed the question of accountability in public life. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee set the tone by saying MPs should carefully consider the implication of their views but not fail to seize the moment at hand.
In the Rajya Sabha, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said Anna's campaign had outlined relevant demands and reminded the House that democracy could not be so lethargic as to not pass the Lokpal bill 42 years after it was first proposed. CPM's Sitaram Yechury pointed to the need to match intent with practicability. In the Lok Sabha, Congress's Sandeep Dikshit spoke of the urgent need to end Anna's fast.
Some MPs were candid enough to agree that the phenomenon was not limited to Mumbai and Delhi. "We are all getting phone calls from our constituents asking why are we not talking about this," said BJP's Varun Gandhi, MP for Philibhit, in an extempore speech.
Even Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav's caustic reference to Team Anna member Kiran Bedi's antics and a side-splitting description of how relentless media pressure of the "dabba" (TV) was depriving leaders of their sleep, carried more than a degree of self-deprecation. Politicians, he suggested, had asked for it.
For a discussion that revolved around deeply contentious matters impacting India's federal structure -- usually much less can ignite state sensibilities -- there were not too many interruptions or cat calls in Parliament. Even regular disrupters like Congress's Lal Singh seemed taken in by the gravity of the occasion.
Most speakers had worked hard on their speeches. MPs did not slip into unnecessary hyperbole and stuck to the substance of what was at hand. For a class that has been under fire and subject to most dismissive treatment, they did not fling the muck back.
There was the cut and thrust of politics as Opposition leaders reminded Congress of how a string of scams had created the space for Anna's movement and given it unprecedented legitimacy. There were retaliatory barbs about how the National Democratic Allaince record was not squeaky clean either.
All quarters in Parliament seemed to realize the challenge they face is much larger than one of factional identities. It was not the time to settle internecine scores. The relevance of Parliament itself was questioned. On 27 August, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha posted a thumping riposte.

Will There Also Be Voice for Change in India?

After Tunisia and Egypt, in many Western-styled democratic countries questions are being raised whether the people of these so-called democratic countries should voice against wayward leaders. According to Bhaskar Ghosh (Frontline 28 February), in India itself all those agonies and problems are faced by people that are faced by the people in Egypt. Prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing, unemployment is on its peak and the scams and black deeds of corrupt leaders are getting exposed.

Existing Problem
The problem in India is that there are very few honest people in the seat of power. The ruling party and the opposition, both are alike in respect of wealth accumulating and nepotism. Interestingly these corrupt people are lawmakers themselves. They increase their salaries whenever they like and can throw any rule or regulation pertaining to the qualifications and morale standards fixed for contestants of the election. They can purchase the will of people by showing the magic of the wealth. There is no restriction on them of any kind.

RSS Venom Against Muslims
How can a revolution come to India, when the country is unfortunately divided on religion, region, caste, creed, and color? In addition to the above, Muslims here are in minority and there is a large majority of communal class who spews the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) venom against Muslims and wants to crush them in all walks of life. This majority class, forgetting values and humanity, has engaged itself in plunder of wealth. Rejecting the pious traditions of Mahatma Gandhi's truthfulness and non-violence, they have adopted the morbid theories of Vir Savarkar and Nathu Ram Godse. Under these circumstances, they cannot be united to raise voice against any ailing system.

During the period of Jai Prakash Narayan, the entire nation had stood up against Indira Gandhi but after sometime, she again came to power and in the name of democracy, the same family rule came into existence. In this country, efforts were desperately made to introduce a third power but in vain. Hence, the minorities to avoid the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were unwillingly forced to vote for the Congress party, which is itself is a party of transgressors and ambidextrous politicians.

Voice for Proper Representation
Now the question arises who should streamline the procedures of public representation, as characterless and criminal persons are sitting as public representatives. Why should they be ready for election reforms, as the voice for proper representation was raised, but they did not agree to it? A large section of people are themselves involved in corruption, hence they do not mind seeing their leaders corrupt as well.

There exists no organization or leadership for bringing amelioration or revolution. All of them content on rallies and congregations. Not one of them has the capability like Egyptians to bring revolution in just 18 days.

Left Parties Opposition To Nuclear Liability Bill Benefiting US

Left parties, which made an unsuccessful attempt to topple the government with the aim to stop the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, have appealed to all parties opposing the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill to get united. Left parties have said that the government is in a hurry to bring this bill in an attempt to provide relief to US nuclear companies. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party said that the government is taking this step under US pressure, and all parties would jointly oppose the same.

123 Agreement With United States
The Left Front had expressed the resolve to stop the 123 Agreement with the United States until the last moment. CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat has continuously declared to use every political avenue for the purposes. In this situation, Karat has once again intensified the campaign to oppose the nuclear liability bill, which is considered an important stage before clinching the nuclear deal.

When Karat started counting his objections to the nuclear liability bill in the Left Front's press meet organized at the CPI-M headquarters, his intention was to prove the bill as anti-national, so that parties supporting it become uneasy.

Endangering People's Lives and Property
Karat said the government is in a hurry to bring this bill so that US companies supplying nuclear reactors do not suffer any financial burden in the event of a nuclear accident, as this burden would fall upon Indian taxpayers. Karat accused that the government was trying to give concessions to US companies in this clandestine manner, putting the burden on government exchequer. At the same time, CPI-M leader Karat and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan accused the government of trying to bring this kind of bill, endangering the lives and property of citizens of the country.

It is certainly shocking that the government is trying to bring in a legislation that absolves foreign reactor companies from the liability of compensation, but puts the burden on the government. This means that this bill puts the burden on the taxpayers' pockets.

Ignoring People's Interests
Finding fault with the bill, Prakash Karat also said that the provision for compensation in the bill is only for accident caused deliberately or due to carelessness. If an accident occurs because of manufacturing problem, there is no provision for any compensation in the bill. Karat said that it became clear from this that the government was keen on this bill to encourage private nuclear energy plants and to provide benefit to US suppliers, ignoring people's interests.

Karat said the government should send a delegation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki so that it came to know that even after six decades, how people were still suffering today. The government might understand something by looking at the condition of a sizable population of Japan suffering from genetic problems due to nuclear radiation.

Mixed Reaction
This bill is unholy, said Prakash Karat taking a dig at the Congress, which called the coming together of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left parties against the bill as an unholy alliance. When asked about this Congress party allegation, Karat said that first this bill is unholy. This question was raised over his appeal to all parties to come together against the bill.

Otherwise also, during the Parliamentary budge session, the Left parties appear to be standing alongside the BJP on several important issues. The BJP and Left parties were together in support of the Women's Reservation Bill, and they also appear to be standing together against price rise. Now, the Left parties and BJP have joined their voices in opposing the nuclear liability bill.