Maha Elections!

There are mainly two types of news. One: which we read/listen and forget. Basically the nonsense stuff which makes no difference to our lives but it somehow ends up on some form of media when there is dearth of worthwhile news. One can refer to it as useless stuff or (news)less stuff! The other type of news is the one which acts as a starting point of debates, the opinion makers. News that make views! Finally we have something to talk about and discuss: Maharashtra assembly elections

The BJP-SS (Shiv Sena) divorce has made this assembly election a five-way contest and it could give the general elections a serious run for its money on the ‘excitement quotient’! As if the four parties were not enough, now we have five major parties, other smaller parties and number of independents vying to represent us at the state level. Some of these independents could really come to the party in case of a close contest which is very likely as none of the parties are expected to get a clear majority. Agenda remains same as the general elections with little change in the overall positioning. BJP has decided to stick to the all-encompassing agenda concentrating on development, growth etc. with the great orator NaMo personally addressing rallies. (BJP, since the general elections, has become so much dependent on NaMo that it is hard to imagine them winning without NaMo’s presence. Their condition is quite similar to what the Indian cricket team used to experience years back, we couldn’t imagine India winning without Tendulkar) For the rest of the parties the agenda remains same as ever, target NaMo apart from the community based politics (this could also be because they do not have much to talk about on their performance or the development front) Some of the political pundits may have you believe that they are committing the same folly as they did the last time around but hey these are not general elections. Going by the by-elections results, what works at the national level may not necessarily work at the state level. 

There are various takeaways from all this: 

Firstly, if BJP does well, one could safely conclude that we have moved away from being an electorate that could be influenced by community based politics to an electorate which is only concerned with jobs, growth etc. This is not to say that BJP has a monopoly on growth and development related matters but going by how parties have positioned themselves it seems only they are interested in development and this is where I think other parties are committing a blunder. I am sure NCP, MNS, SS and Congress could be and are equally pro-development but they have chosen to position/brand themselves differently. At the end of the day, even if a party appeals to a certain community, it promises them a better life through jobs, growth etc. So the agenda for them is also same as BJP but the only difference being they want to only target a certain community. 

Secondly, I would really like all these parties to do well and have a universal agenda of development and growth which will be most idealistic situation. It will be interesting to see how parties which fight on the same universal agenda compete with each other.

Then there is another view that at state level you need to appeal to the ‘majority’ of people of that state. Unfortunately in case of our country the ‘majority’ only means majority of a community in a particular state. And there is a good reason why this has worked for years in India. One may think of himself as a secular individual but let us face it; we are not that secular as we may think of ourselves to be. A non-gujarati may have voted for a gujarati PM at the national level but he is very likely to vote for a fellow community member at the local level. Similarly, a gujarati may prefer a gujarati over another community member even at the local level. This is because of the environment that has been created over the past few decades by people with vested interests which has forced us into thinking that only our own community members can represent us. 

BJP has been lucky in this regard. As NaMo’s performance in Gujarat has allowed BJP to move from being a party that was majorly dependent on certain communities to a party which has a larger appeal. It will be interesting to see how people of Maharashtra vote this time as this election could change fortunes for some of the parties for times to come.