Raju Analysis: Advantage Congress, Bjp Shell-shocked – Sheela Bhatt
May 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under News And Society
imrankhan14u asked:
At 11.15 am on Monday there was no senior leader available in the Bhartiya Janata Party office on Delhi’s Ashok Road. That speaks volumes for the shell-shocked party.
The results are out and Congress has won handsomely.
Sheila Dixit deserves a salute for winning in New Delhi for a third time on a development plank. Her victory is so impressive in view of adversity she has faced that she has, surely, elevated herself.
The BJP has not only lost but its entire stance on terrorism stands exposed. It will need many ‘chintan baithaks’ for the party leaders to find out why the voters have not bought their serious and quite justifiable allegation of the Congress being ’soft on terror’.
In New Delhi, BJP workers are stunned and floored by the Congress’s fitting reply to their propaganda on terrorism. The issue of terrorism has cut both ways and BJP is bleeding.
A senior member of the BJP executive body told rediff.com, “The Congress has just not got breathing space but a huge supply of oxygen by winning New Delhi and Rajasthan. I think the voters of India have shown maturity.”
Many senior leaders are not even ready to speak to press. Whoever is talking is defending the party meekly in television studios.
The most stunning fact is that New Delhi went to poll just three days after the Mumbai terrorist attacks and Rajasthan went to poll eight days later but voters have shown extraordinary maturity by de-linking the issue of terrorism from state elections.
Local issues have prevailed in these elections and it’s once again proved that Indian voters want their leaders to address the issues sadak, pani, bijli and education as much as security.
One charitable explanation on behalf of BJP could be that Indian voters think that issue of terrorism is a central subject and state elections are for the basic issues of good governance. The huge polling percentage seen in Jammu and Kashmir is also part of the same mood of Indian voters.
It seems that Mumbai attacks impact is so overwhelming that it has subsumed the reputation of both the Congress and the BJP. People now understand that both parties have a poor track record of management of the security issue. Both are indulging in petty politics over terrorism. The Congress is weak in taking tough decisions and the BJP is confused in it’s thinking and many times was looking too eager to encash the tragedy.
The Mumbai attacks have sent the message clearly to BJP that its exploitation of terrorism will not get the party votes, unconditionally.
The voting in New Delhi and Rajasthan suggests that on issues of terrorism voters have put Congress and BJP in same bracket and have voted decisively on other issues.
Despite the Mumbai attacks if Sheila Dixit has won in South Delhi seats (except V K Malhotra’s seat in Greater Kailash) that means that voters have not voted aginst Congress for being soft on terror nor have they voted for the BJP on the terrorism issue.
It is interesting to note that even the issues of the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikant Purohit in the Malegaon blast case has not helped the BJP in any way in Rajasthan and New Delhi. If it has helped in MP, it is merely one of the issues that helped the BJP win in that state.
BJP leaders accept that if a pro-Hindu or anti-Muslim factor would have been dominant after the Mumbai attacks then Rajasthan would have surely gone with the BJP.
The profile of the middle-class Hindu voters in MP and Rajasthan are similar and entire belt would have gone in similar fashion if the Hindutva issue was on voters’ mind.
BJP’s workers are livid that in New Delhi they lost in spite of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and a huge work force from Bihar and Gujarat that had come to help. They claim that reckless distribution of tickets to unworthy candidates and a ’spent force’ like Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s leadership has sunk the party. In Rajasthan, they are blaming the caste factor, Jaswant Singh’s no-cooperation, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s ‘maharani-like’ behaviour with party workers.
Because of Raje’s haughty behaviour, she could not take the entire party in a coherent manner to battle. As a result, there were 65 party rebels in the election. The rebels and Jat voters of Rajasthan have hit Raje badly.
Meanwhile, the Congress is back on its legs and its biggest advantage will go to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who will have respite in deciding the final policy vis-a-vis Pakistan after the Mumbai attack. There will be not party pressure on him directly and that will give him enough space to manoeuvre and implement his kind of diplomacy in preparing a response to the Mumbai attack.
The elections are all about the psychological advantage in a war of nerves. Winning or losing is just the one part of a big story. Congress has survived miraculously the lost debate on terrorism to fight the next round of battle. Tags: Analysis: Advantage Congress + BJP shell-shocked – Sheela Bhatt – post analysis
Source :
At 11.15 am on Monday there was no senior leader available in the Bhartiya Janata Party office on Delhi’s Ashok Road. That speaks volumes for the shell-shocked party.
The results are out and Congress has won handsomely.
Sheila Dixit deserves a salute for winning in New Delhi for a third time on a development plank. Her victory is so impressive in view of adversity she has faced that she has, surely, elevated herself.
The BJP has not only lost but its entire stance on terrorism stands exposed. It will need many ‘chintan baithaks’ for the party leaders to find out why the voters have not bought their serious and quite justifiable allegation of the Congress being ’soft on terror’.
In New Delhi, BJP workers are stunned and floored by the Congress’s fitting reply to their propaganda on terrorism. The issue of terrorism has cut both ways and BJP is bleeding.
A senior member of the BJP executive body told rediff.com, “The Congress has just not got breathing space but a huge supply of oxygen by winning New Delhi and Rajasthan. I think the voters of India have shown maturity.”
Many senior leaders are not even ready to speak to press. Whoever is talking is defending the party meekly in television studios.
The most stunning fact is that New Delhi went to poll just three days after the Mumbai terrorist attacks and Rajasthan went to poll eight days later but voters have shown extraordinary maturity by de-linking the issue of terrorism from state elections.
Local issues have prevailed in these elections and it’s once again proved that Indian voters want their leaders to address the issues sadak, pani, bijli and education as much as security.
One charitable explanation on behalf of BJP could be that Indian voters think that issue of terrorism is a central subject and state elections are for the basic issues of good governance. The huge polling percentage seen in Jammu and Kashmir is also part of the same mood of Indian voters.
It seems that Mumbai attacks impact is so overwhelming that it has subsumed the reputation of both the Congress and the BJP. People now understand that both parties have a poor track record of management of the security issue. Both are indulging in petty politics over terrorism. The Congress is weak in taking tough decisions and the BJP is confused in it’s thinking and many times was looking too eager to encash the tragedy.
The Mumbai attacks have sent the message clearly to BJP that its exploitation of terrorism will not get the party votes, unconditionally.
The voting in New Delhi and Rajasthan suggests that on issues of terrorism voters have put Congress and BJP in same bracket and have voted decisively on other issues.
Despite the Mumbai attacks if Sheila Dixit has won in South Delhi seats (except V K Malhotra’s seat in Greater Kailash) that means that voters have not voted aginst Congress for being soft on terror nor have they voted for the BJP on the terrorism issue.
It is interesting to note that even the issues of the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikant Purohit in the Malegaon blast case has not helped the BJP in any way in Rajasthan and New Delhi. If it has helped in MP, it is merely one of the issues that helped the BJP win in that state.
BJP leaders accept that if a pro-Hindu or anti-Muslim factor would have been dominant after the Mumbai attacks then Rajasthan would have surely gone with the BJP.
The profile of the middle-class Hindu voters in MP and Rajasthan are similar and entire belt would have gone in similar fashion if the Hindutva issue was on voters’ mind.
BJP’s workers are livid that in New Delhi they lost in spite of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and a huge work force from Bihar and Gujarat that had come to help. They claim that reckless distribution of tickets to unworthy candidates and a ’spent force’ like Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s leadership has sunk the party. In Rajasthan, they are blaming the caste factor, Jaswant Singh’s no-cooperation, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s ‘maharani-like’ behaviour with party workers.
Because of Raje’s haughty behaviour, she could not take the entire party in a coherent manner to battle. As a result, there were 65 party rebels in the election. The rebels and Jat voters of Rajasthan have hit Raje badly.
Meanwhile, the Congress is back on its legs and its biggest advantage will go to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who will have respite in deciding the final policy vis-a-vis Pakistan after the Mumbai attack. There will be not party pressure on him directly and that will give him enough space to manoeuvre and implement his kind of diplomacy in preparing a response to the Mumbai attack.
The elections are all about the psychological advantage in a war of nerves. Winning or losing is just the one part of a big story. Congress has survived miraculously the lost debate on terrorism to fight the next round of battle. Tags: Analysis: Advantage Congress + BJP shell-shocked – Sheela Bhatt – post analysis
Source :
