The calendar of the five-phase elections for the 15th Lok Sabha has been announced. Almost all the political parties are nervous about going to the polls. Equally, the people of India are uncertain about what the elections will ultimately throw up.

The UPA isn't fighting the election as a national alliance. The Congress will go it alone but have different seat-sharing arrangements at the state level. It will project a strong all-India profile. The BJP's strategy is to fight 28 different elections in 28 states, using varying pragmatic platforms and appeals.

What of the NDA? It too is poorly placed to gain from the UPA's stagnation or loss. The BJP is confident of winning only in Gujarat, and probably Madhya Pradesh. It's in decline in the western and central states, barring Gujarat, which contribute 40 percent-plus of all its Lok Sabha MPs.

Remarkably, no party is wooing the BJP. It has no positive programme with a broad appeal. Its 'nation-in-danger-from-terrorism-Muslims-Pakistan' platform isn't selling. Nor does it have economic policies or a social vision that will win support outside the upper-caste and upper-class urban elite.

The BJP cannot possibly replicate its winning alliance strategy of 1999. From a total of 24 parties, the NDA is now down to just seven, of whom only the JD-U, Akali Dal and Biju Janata Dal are sizeable. The rest are too small and unreliable to matter.

Seems Like India must await a radical restructuring of party programmes and strategies -- based on closer alignment with the people's real needs and with progressive social movements -- before it has less opportunistic, rules-free and fragmented politics.

The main problem with our so-called democracy is that we often end up voting out, rather than voting in people who would be good to govern India.

parties in India don't win, instead they lose elections.
Simple because we have no real options and we are just choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea electin after election.

BJP and its NDA is as tainted as Congress and its UPA while the 3rd front is a bunch of opportunists and leechers.

The last five years have been terrible for India. There have been more terrorist attacks in the last five years than in all our history.

The Satyam saga is reflective of the deep nexus between business and politics and it is sad that to this day, Sonia Gandhi has not fired Y Rajshekar Reddy of Andhra Pradesh for his known complicity in the Satyam scandal. When the terror attacks happened in Bombay, the response of the Union of India was pitiable and should there be a recurrence of that today, the story will be the same.

India is at vital cross-roads. We have issues with neighbourly diplomacy like we have never had before. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh have become points of implosion.

BJP has still not got its act together. They are riddled with internal politics of hatred; they are a divided lot and Advani's blind ambition to become PM.


Third front is nothing but a big joke and are hoping that they can get in some numbers which would be useful for bargaining after the results are out since BJP and congress alone are both diminishing.



My honest opinion is that the congress was taking pride in telling about the growth in india for past years. at that time the whole world was booming and it was helping india. but now when there is a downturn chidambaram and congress are blaming it on the world. how is this possible? you take credit for good and pass on the buck for the bad? India grew around 9 pc for 4 years when there was a bubble in world economy and so was in our economy. Congress has done no good thing other than the nuclear deal and they are going to fail misreably in this coming election.

Sadly i dont see BJp gaining its position as well.

Its gonna be hung with none able to make it without an uncomfortable partner like left or BSP for both UPA and NDA.

I think the problem India has today is that it has 3 poor alternatives to choose from.


What would you choose? Devil or the deep blue sea?

Comments Welcome

Good points Gumnaam.

Those negatives we all perhaps know deep in our hearts.

What are the options we have, that would be important to discuss.

Next how to implement election reforms and how to create a level ground for each candidate so that the good and real ones are not bulldozed by idiots with guns.

It would be important to share some thoughts on informing the people and create a debate on how to reform the process. The democracy in India is merely a word and even though the system appears to be democratic, its funtional reality is that it is exploited by the crooked and mafiosi parties like Congress, Laloo Prasad and his similar style parties who are SIMPLY parties on paper without any real grass root level organization or real agenda.

The real parties small or big, with creative idea of India would need to be organized by thinking people for good of India.

In Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh repeated his statement that, 'Among the minorities, particularly Muslims, if they are poor, then they should have the first claim to India's resources. I stand by my statement.'

Is this the party that claims itself to be secular? Whats their definition of being secular? Are they not the DEVIL they call the BJP to be?

Neither the BJp nor the congress can be the party to lead India into the future. Election reforms need to begin with the parties themselves.

The Election commission along with the CBI or some central agency thats beyond the control of the government (perhaps the Army) should seize all assets of politicians beyond what they have disclosed to the EC.

That would itself bring in a lot of wealth to the central pool which can be used for election reforms and good policing.

I would never vote for a PM who wants to give first right to a person just because of religious considerations. Religion for me is a pvt thing which is very individual centric and should have no place in any reforms.

I dont wanna see LK advani as Pm who claimed Jinnah to be secular and whos just hell bent to fulfill a personal ambition. Id never want to see Manmohan Singh again because of these pro muslim policies. The third front and fourth front are muscle men and money minded greedy politicians who should be on the hit list of some pro Indian organization like the RAW.

As a common citizen, what are my options? I am just voting for my city MP and have no say in who the PM is going to be. The whole system is outdated and corrupted to the core.