Congress Sweeps Left, Right and Centre
Times of India
NEW DELHI, May 17: India has yet again been surprised by Indians. Last time, no one thought a Congress-led UPA would emerge winners. It did. This time, many said Congress would be the single-largest party and UPA the top coalition, but few imagined Congress would retain office with 201 seats — the highest any single party has got in 25 years — and UPA 258 seats. And yet like a silent tsunami, the Congress swamped its rivals to triumphantly return to power.
This election was supposed to be without any national issue. The Indian voter, however, had different ideas — he has voted with his feet for a coherent and stable government. Manmohan Singh is set to take charge as Prime Minister and become the only PM since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 to be voted back after completing a full five-year term. What's more, he will head a government without the support of the Left, whimsical partners like Mayawati or any other coercive ally. The middle class would be heaving a sigh of relief.
The scale of the Congress win looks even more stunning when you consider the party did not contest all seats in big states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu. Not just that, it took the field in UP and Bihar on its own, without any preparation. The gamble did not click in Bihar, but it did in UP — and handsomely. In Bihar, too, it has been able to get many Muslim votes.
The election marked an emphatic endorsement of Manmohan Singh as PM, a triumph of Sonia Gandhi who took the right calls — from a robust backing of Manmohan as PM to allowing Rahul to take over from her as the party's main campaigner which, in turn, saw her son come into his own.
National parties fail to up seat share
Many commentators have called this election a return of national parties — no doubt, on the basis of the performance of Congress and BJP in UP, a state which has been in the hands of regional outfits for over a decade. But that would be misreading the election. While in UP, voters seem to have viewed national parties with favour, the BSP is still the state's No. 1 party, having emerging as either the winner or runner-up in 68 of the 80 seats.
But more than that, there is another statistic that is more telling. The combined strength of all national parties — Congress, BJP and the Left — remain the same in this election as it was the last time. In 2004, these national parties had a combined tally of 345 seats; this time they have a tally of 344. In other words, some regional parties might have lost, but some have gained. Ditto for the national parties.
So, why has Congress done so well? What went right for it? It would appear it was seen as a more sincere party than its rivals — possibly a result of Manmohan Singh's earnest and honest image and Sonia Gandhi's understated style. It was also seen as a party for the ‘‘aam admi'', and the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and loan waiver for indebted farmers made it appear a pro-poor party.
In short, the Congress was seen as a party with its heart in the right place. Even for the middle class, Manmohan Singh's passionate espousal of the nuclear deal seems to shown him up as a man of conviction. It was also seen as a party for the youth, with most urban youth connecting more with young leaders like Rahul Gandhi than BJP's gen-next.
For the BJP, the election has been something of a disaster with Narendra Modi being touted as L K Advani's successor right in the middle of the poll campaign, and Varun Gandhi usurping the party's agenda with his personal positioning exercise as UP's Modi. At the end of it, the BJP was left with a negative campaign and could hardly convey to the electorate what it would bring to the table.
Advani is now likely to call it quits. On Saturday, as the results came in, he offered his resignation as leader of the opposition which was turned down by the party.
Singh is king! Kingmakers are out...
By Manish Chand - IANS
New Delhi, May 16: Kingmakers are out. There is only one king in this election. And that's Manmohan Singh, the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) that won with a decisive margin, belying predictions of a hung parliament.
At least half-a-dozen regional satraps who were harbouring prime ministerial ambitions and were itching to play kingmakers are now out in the cold.
Contrary to the pre-poll scenario, when both the Congress and the BJP were assiduously courting them in search of the elusive 272 halfway mark in parliament, the market value of the so-called kingmakers has dipped dramatically.
Almost all exit polls predicted a photo finish contest between the two leading political formations, fuelling ambitions of those who were bracing to drive hard political bargains.
Not sure of the numbers, a timorous Congress was courting Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar despite his insistence that he was firmly in the NDA camp. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa, Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik were among those the Congress was eyeing and had sent emissaries to woo.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi even went to the extent of praising Nitish Kumar and Naidu as examples of good leaders outside the UPA fold - widely seen as overtures to the two who have carved their careers around anti-Congress politics.
The BJP, which was hoping to emerge at the head of the largest pre-poll alliance, too, unleashed a charm offensive. Senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu flew to Hyderabad to forge equations with Naidu, a former NDA ally. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi rushed to Chennai to say it with flowers to Jayalalithaa, who was already declaring price for her support: the dismissal of the M. Karunanidhi government.
Others were broadcasting their wish list for potential suitors.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's ambitions transcended mere deal-making as she fancied herself as a dark horse who could walk away with the prime ministerial trophy if her Third Front allies manage to get more than 100 seats. She was banking on her friend, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Prakash Karat, who repeatedly said the Left Front would work to install a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the centre.
And Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav went around saying unabashedly that his party's support would be for any alliance that would dismiss his bete noire Mayawati's government.
Now the long and twisted wish list of potential kingmakers lie in tatters as they wake up to the post-poll reality. The numbers, on which they were shoring up their dreams, are not simply not with them this time round.
Congress Claims Victory as UPA Tops India's Battle for Power
India's ruling Congress party claimed victory Saturday as its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) inched towards near majority in the 545-seat Lok Sabha, dealing blows to a divided opposition and proving pundits wrong.
Celebrations erupted outside the Congress headquarters in the heart of the capital as counting of the millions of the votes polled in the April-May election showed that the multi-party UPA could end up with up to 250 MPs - just 22 seats short of the halfway mark needed to form a government.
In a major blow to its ambitions, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had waited for five long years to return to power, and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) suffered reverses in many places and failed to sweep some of the states they had expected.
The Third Front, made up of the Communists and regional parties, took massive blows across the country, particularly in the Marxist strongholds of Kerala and West Bengal, a development that could drop the Left strength in the Lok Sabha dramatically.
Science and Technology Minister and Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal described the expected victory of the UPA as a mandate for party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's leadership.
"People want a stable government, they want a prime minister who thinks for the country," he told reporters here.
Election Commission officials said UPA candidates were in the lead in 232 of the 519 Lok Sabha seats and those of NDA in 156 constituencies. The Third Front was on the winning track in 82 seats while the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which split from the Congress ahead of the elections, were ahead only in 31 places.
Going beyond even what optimistic exit polls had predicted, the Congress and its allies took the upper hand in the northern belt of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttarakhand and exceeded expectations in the populous and politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and Maharahstra. Their showing was also impressive in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Hundreds of Congress activists beat drums, danced and burst crackers outside the party headquarters and the nearby 10 Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi here, shouting slogans hailing her, her son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.
In a sign that the BJP was conceding defeat, one of its senior leaders, Balbir Punj, told IANS: "Whatever be the verdict, we will accept it."
"The results are not on expected lines. The initial trend shows that Congress and UPA is leading over us... Definitely, we miss Vajpayee," he later told reporters.
Communist Party of India's D. Raja admitted: "We need to do some introspection."
In a dramatic change of fortunes, the Congress was picking up an unprecedented number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, once its stronghold and where it had been reduced to an also ran for two decades before its general secretary Rahul Gandhi decided it was time to get aggressive in the most populous state.
The best showing for the BJP and its allies came from Karnataka in the south and Bihar, which is ruled by the Janata Dal-United. The BJP was also poised to sweep all four seats in Himachal Pradesh. And although it led in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Congress managed to grab some of the seats in both seats, denting the BJP's overall tally.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had expected at one time to win as many as 50 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh which it rules, was faring poorly, officials said.
Among the prominent candidates set to get elected to the 15th Lok Sabha were central ministers Kamal Nath and Renuka Chowdhury of the Congress, BJP president Rajnath Singh and Janata Dal-Secular leader and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Samajwadi Party's Jaya Prada, a former actor, was trailing in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh while union Home Minister P. Chidamabaram was set to lose in Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu. MDMK leader Vaiko, a strong supporter of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, was also on the losing track.
Political pundits had predicted a badly fractured 545-member Lok Sabha, warning that the Congress would find it difficult to take power without major help from others.
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