As general elections 2008 was nearing, I had written a post on BJP's chances (or the lack there of) at http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.in/2008/12/rajnikanth-chiranjeevi-and-future-of.html . And now with GE 2014 nearing, it seems interesting to read what I had posted then. Let me start off by relating back to that post
* The backdrop almost remains the same - the fact is that BJP has its strong presence only in a few states unlike the Congress which has the de facto advantage since Indian independence of having a pan-India presence. The grand old party also has the natural advantage of not having much of an ideology, fitting quite well in to the "chalta hei" attitude which much of the India voters can themselves relate to, and finally a dynasty headed by people either white or mixed-white in a country where white-master brown-slave mentality unfortunately still remains !!
* What else has not changed is the fact that ultimately it is a number game.. and I believe the number of seats per state in that post hasn't changed since either. Now that was a pre-2009-election post.. what really happened in that election ? NDA (including JDU) grabbed about 160 seats (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_general_election,_2009 ) of which BJP got about 116 .. Interestingly my "min" was 112 and "max" was 212 and NDA ended almost exactly the midpoint (average) of that.. pat myself for my prophecy :)
* Neither Chiranjeevi nor Rajanikanth helped NDA last time, in fact the former drowned himself into Congress ever since and the later remains elusive. I had also mentioned that "If its anywhere near the minimum, then one might simply see the end of BJP in a few years, unless may be "NaMo" takes the "center"stage" . BJP has survived and NaMo has indeed taken center stage. Though not the "traditional" bottom-up way that perhaps an Advani came up, I think in this case the top-down is fine because Modi after all is a "state leader" and not a 'stateless' leader as Arun Shourie put it , and secondly, Modi has been able to influence the "bottom" most ranks of the party.
So now, how do I want to view GE 2014 ? and what do I want to write about ? First and foremost, I feel that there has been a general rejuvenation among the pro-right in India - be it the BJP worker, or the "outside" supporter. I feel the same myself to a bit and hope to get back to blogging habit - again mostly for the "self satisfaction" :)
And so this post is #zero of a series that I hope to take up ! And so, what do I think this time ? Yes or No or maybe for NDA ? Will GE2014 be a turning point in the history of India , from a long term perspective ? What should perhaps BJP be doing, state by state in order to "grab power" and "grow forever" ! My thoughts to follow !!!
