Rahul Gandhi alias "Pappu" has won on points while Narendra Damodardas Modi alias "Feku" has lost ground to the party that he seeks to "eliminate" (Congress-mukth) from Indian politics! The common thread in these results indicate that voters in these states want a change in the existing govt. and hence in four states (excepting Telengana) the incumbent govt's are most likely to abdicate the throne.
If anything is to be learnt from these elections, it is that there are limitations to how far ideology-driven parties can go in pushing their core agendas or beliefs. People are only interested in them as long as they are able to aid the upward mobility of general population, economically and socially, in that order of preference. The throw-back to centrist politics is inevitable when the "core agenda of voters" is not met. "Roti, kapada aur makan" may just be a slogan today, but for the voter, it is foremost in their minds albeit in upgraded forms of lifestyle that they aspire to. Which is why "jobs" is a hot topic and of primary concern in most countries. Moreover, there is a fundamental flaw (or call it a contradiction) in the design of a multi-party democracy and the way it is administered, which makes it seemingly volatile and unstable most of the times. But more on that later.
So for the BJP, the lesson is to move away from "Pappugiri" politics and "supari" slogans of eliminating its rivals, to a more inclusive agenda. For the Congress, now also known as the GOP (grand old party) of India (silly Americanisms), there is hope on the horizon. But it cannot package old wine in new bottle and expect people to swallow it. The information age is upon us and social ramifications of living in a hyper-media and Internet-enabled environment is highly unpredictable, especially for politics and politicians. (Photo © India Today)
