Congress revival in UP, I would say for, one.

And it is not like NDA losing heavily, it is UPA gaining on the expense of Third Front. 

And the meek shall inherit the earth ? Singh indeed is king ! Bravo to the diminutive Sardar.  

the factors imo :
1. A good memory
2. Hindu's dont need protection.

yea, the gain is on the expense of the third front and the BSP.  Any idea how the RJD has fared ?

Pl. read my posting "Let BJP sit in Opposition but let it press for its demands through Satyagraha.  BJP has lost this time because it did not stick to its principles as enumerated below:

1. Building of a Ram Mandir.
2. Abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution conferring special status on J7K
3. Enforcement of Uniform Civil Code 
4. Deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants; etc.

If these fundamental principles are sacrificed then BJP would only look a carbon copy of the Congress and why would anybody vote for a carbon copy.  People voted for original.  If BJP is to come to power, it must launch Satyagraha for the implementation of the above noted 4 points which differentiate it from Congress party and make it a party with a difference.

BB, care to elaborate on your 1st point. I thought voters suffers from short-term memory loss. 

RJD is history.. lalu lost from one of his constituencies .. Saran to Rajiv Pratap Rudi of BJP. He appears to be leading from the other constituency.. Patliputra. 

:-) btw Delhi is swept clean by the Cong !

The NDA leads in only 160 seats.  So they have lost ground.  Its not like they hv done well.  Maybe the ppl saw thru the 'Development' 

@SSb,

In my opinion, BJP made two cardinal mistakes :
1) Oppose the Nuclear Deal
2) Attack MMS's personality.

Good relations with US ( after all almost everybody has a relative in the US ) and growth is what BJP supporters want. This opposition went against both. The tide , in my opinion, turned at that time. Had NDA propped up the UPA govt. on the Nuclear Deal, nobody could have stopped BJP victory this time.

MMS has a solid resume. No way was a personal attack on MMS going to cut any ice with the urban classes that tries to work hard to reach the top. MMS is a man who on the basis of his  intellect has reached the top post in India. His resume is something almost every Indian ( perhaps leaving aside Left) is proud of. 

@BB,

Its not that people saw through 'Development'. In spite of all the 'secular' hoopla, BJP has won Gujarat and Karnataka about which the so-called secular brigade has been making the most noise. 

AF

I too believed that voters suffered from memory loss (the long term one).. but my guess is that some measures undertaken by the cong appears to have worked.  NREGA and the farmer loan waiver.  then, if the red bastions hv crashed, its because they r unable to forgive the commies for their hving screwed up WB and even Kerala.  V S Achuthanandan had it coming..

I am pleasantly surprised that Lalu lost to Rudy :D  The turn around of the Railways went to his head I guess..

SSB commented on ur post !!  this is the eigth wonder... :D:D..

@BB,

Even in the last election Laloo has lost the election from Madhepura to Sharad Yadav. Perhaps that is what is forcing Laloo to look towards development and he turned around Railway to show his case. But perhaps he has made far too many mistakes to be forgiven so easily.

@BB,

That MMS has won surely means there must be something that the voters could connect to. 

AF

the BJP wud hv won Guj anyday.  All those swiss a/c holding black marketeering gujju's need protection.  Not for religious reasons imo.  Karnataka cud b an aberration, or maybe a good memory working for their favour.  Maybe the cong didnt really do much work there.

yea.. there must be something that ppl connect to, wrt MMS

Sharad Yadav is big as compared to RPR.  So losing to Rudy spells trouble for L. If Lalu wanted to prove himself, he cud hv gotten the RJD to do some good work in the state..  Maybe ppl found Nitish to be a genuine case unlike Lalu rhetoric.

Any idea on what ministry they will put Rahul Gandhi into? HRD maybe??

i completely agree with satbirji ... BJP has its existence because of a particular ideology ... BJP neglecting its ideology is the reason for its defeat ...

the BJP should not forget its "roots" or "character" ... as those roots and character of a "hindu party" is the "image" it has got in public's mind ...   shying away from this "hindu" image creates confusion in voter's mind ... and hence voters prefer congress as against BJP, in the Secular sphere that the election was fought in ...

UPA on the other hand is all about being "secular" ... with no proper ideology ... its like gambling in a game of poker ... and this time too congress has managed to bag the pot !

Hindus are no gamblers ... they are firm believers in an ideology ... and that is the nature of Hindus in general ... let this be understood by the BJP leadership first, as it owes it existence to the issues concerning the hindus in general !

Very well said, Mr.Vamsikarra.  

Ankit

I feel that Rahul shud not take up any ministry now, or shud be taken under the wings of someone like Kapil Sibal or PC, to get a feel of things and how the govt machinery works.

Vamsi,

r u on Cong payroll ? :D  Its thinkers like u who did the BJP in..

PC has lost from Sivaganga ! :-o

CNN IBN quoted sources as saying that PC will still be a minister, even if he loses. But, it will be quite strange and maybe even embarrassing to have both PM and home minister in Rajya Sabha.    

@ busybee ...

i have to confess that i am not linked to the electioneering machinery of either congress or BJP ...

to correct you ... its the voters who did BJP in ...

@ satbirji ...

thanku !

Vamsi,

Its their strategy which did them in.  First they start off with Advani, with his over weening ambition to wield power.  Then they call MMS weak.  Like ppl cant make out where strength matters in realpolitik. Then they go on the back foot on Advani's age with him lifting dumbells to show that he is healthy.  All wrong.  India respects age, not fools.

Ankit,

Embarassments can b tossed out of the window, if we do not have a good alternative to PC, but it would be a tad unfair to those who win elections..

@ busybee ...

the fact is that the BJP had to adopt the strategies that you correctly listed out ... because they were fighting the election on the "secular" plane that the congress party is known for, and strong in ... that is the mistake they did ...

BJP forgetting their core ideology, made them to fight them against the strengths of congress in indian election scenario ...

no comments on whether advaniji can lift dumbells and maintain the now fashionable 6 packs to woo young india ... i guess he meant that young india should stay healthy and fit ... i frankly dont see anything foolishness in that !

Wats going on.. earlier it was declared PC had lost.. he demanded recounting and now its flashing that he is leading.. something fishy?

Btw, i have to correct myslef.. earlier it was showing Rudy was ahead.. now the news is Laloo has won Saran.

Vamsi

This can b seen as a vote for Cong/UPA coalition rather than an anti-BJP/NDA one.  the BJP is identified as a pro-hindu agenda party.. which means that they dont hv to talk abt what they actually stand for.  which again means that ppl intentionally voted for agenda's and policies they prefer.  U hv assumed that ppl arent aware of what the BJP is.

Had the BJP played their religion card, they wud have fared much worse.

Good that PC leads..

A distinct trend about this election has been that state govts have mostly managed to buck the trend of anti-incumbency votes as used to be the scene in the previous elections. And only exception is that state which has been doing it all the time: West Bengal. 

Vinod Khanna has lost !  :-))

and Sajjad Lone was trailing, last I heard.  So this shud give him an idea of where things stand I guess.

It seems that those who did not go out and vote belonged to BJP. It seems that the Congress has got its organizational machinery well greased, oiled and lubricated with all its resources, with a united image, while BJP seems to lacked connection to their cadres. Time for BJP to loosen its purse strings and spend and spend in villages, small towns and slums and not only on high-tech messages.  

LP

r u up in ur ivory tower, smoking a cheroot ? :D  the BJP with its RSS grassroot support has a better oraganisational machinery.  Why did the BJP lose Rajasthan & Uttarakhand ?  Even in Guj, BJP has got 16 seats and the cong 10, as of now.  Advani had been campaigning day and night.

bee,
precisely. NO doubt the RSS has its disciplined cadre. But was everything hundy-dory with RSS-BJP relationship? Do you have information that I should have but not getting in my ivory tower? 

Look at the results of three coastal constituencies in Karnataka: Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, and Uttara Kannada, which elected BJP candidates, despite the outrage over the pub attack, anti-church vandalism, and several other acts of goondaism by Baj Rang Dal and its associates, and the likely effect of driving the canara catholic voters away from its fold? What does it suggest? That the BJP-RSS-VHP-ABVP-BRD-RS cadres have become more strident. I view that the BJP was over-confident, just like in 2004, of its success based on their perception that people of India were dissatisfied with the governance and performance of UPA. Their chief strategist and the Party President were not even talking to each other for sometime. The PM-in-waiting was noisy but did not display at clarity and probably was shunned by RSS bosses..

well, as you said, that is my view from the ivory tower filled with smoke for now..    

@BB,

Btw, the queen of 'Pub Bharo andolan' - Renuka Chaudhary has lost the elections. 

LP

Yes the saffron brigade may have been become more strident which worked in Karnataka.  Besides the conversion and proseltysing attempts may not have been forgotten,  and these places could be having a bigger percentage of upper castes.. But the equations are different in other states.. and in places where there are no imagined enemies of hinduism, the saffron brigades strategy doesnt work.

LP

further, the ppl/voters do not know that their PM in waiting isnt talking with their chief strategist. They only see LKA and hear his talks abt the weakling PM.

AF

I know. Had heard abt her in the morning itself. May be she relied on rhetoric and drama and did less of genuine work.

BJP went into the election without a real captain at the helm and without a route map.....predictably it lost.

Congress has won because people have identified it with stabilty at the minimum and economic development at best....I think Congress has also had such a great result thanks to BJP/NDA drifting rudderless rather than any grandiose strategy of their own.

The Manmohan factor also helped.Now the mild mannered sardar ji has won a great mandate for the party and the stage is set for handing of the baton to Rahul at some point during this term..Back to the dynasty.....:)

UO

:D only the  BJP had a captain at the start of the campaign.  And they forced the cong to declare a PM by taunting them.. which backfired. They never dreamt that their majboot neta wud not be acceptable in comparision to the weakling sardar !  the cong gained at the expense of the commies, BSP and the BJP as well.  The wonder of wonders is that the cong got 10 seats in Gujarat !