Waking up to the election results today morning, did not disappoint me. In fact the result was not a surprise. It was the numbers that surprised me. It turned out to be a landslide victory for Mr. Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). For the first time since 1984, there is a single largest party and there will not be any opposition in the parliament since 1977. Yes! The Indian National Congress (INC) has crashed to it's worst ever defeat and yet the president and vice-president of the INC briefed the media (one-and-a-half-minutes) without taking any questions from the media. In contrast, Assam's Chief Minister took responsibility for the loss in Assam and offered to resign in front of panelists in a private news channel.The initial trends did not go well with 24, Akbar Road. As the day progressed many of Mr. Manmohan's ministers faced defeat including Mr. Kapil Sibal, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde, Mr. Salman Khurshid, Mr. Ajay Maken, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr. Ajit Singh and Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal. Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar also lost (no more "aap bait jayie"). The verdict was already evident when 12 of the cabinet members decided not to contest these elections. The people have rejected dynastic politics.
Moving on from the losers to the winners, Mr. Modi brought the firepower that the BJP really needed. After all the initial hiccups within the party related to the nomination of the prime minesterial candidate, the BJP leaders have managed to put aside all differences and gain the people's confidence. In fact the BJP has crossed the 272 mark and has proven almost all exit polls wrong (Chanakya being the exception). While Narendra Modi is the so called 'Man-of-the-series', the BJP owes Mr. Modi's close aide Mr. Amit Shah 'a lot'. He has led BJP to a thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh. Close to 25% of the seats the BJP won are in U.P., once agian throwing light on the fact that to win India you must win Uttar Pradesh.The BJP has swept the Northern, Central and the Western parts of India with 100% results in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Good results were obtained in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar along with the extraordinary numbers in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was reduced to single-digit numbers while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been decimated. Now the BJP has a very good chance to win the next assembly elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The BJPs main shock came in the form of senior leader Arun Jaitley's loss to Capt. Amarinder Singh of the INC. But he already is a Rajya Sabha member, so it will not be a big problem for him. Senior leaders like Mr. Advani, Mr. M.M. Joshi, Mr. Rajnath Singh, Mr. Gadkari and Mrs. Swaraj won as expected. While Gen. V.K.Singh and Varun Gandhi tasted success in Ghaziabad and Sultanpur respectively, important ally members like Ramvilas Paswan and Anbumani Ramadoss (still in the lead) posted victories. Smriti Irani lost to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi but not before giving him a run for his money. My pick for the important ministerial posts will be Mr. Singh, Mr. Gadkhari, Mr. Joshi, Mrs. Swaraj, Mr. Jaitley, Mr. Paswan and Mr. Prasad. Mr. Advani may well be on his way to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
All the exit polls had predicted that the INC will do well in Karnataka, Kerala and Assam. But BJP has clearly made an impression in Assam and is leading in 18 constituencies in Karnataka. Clearly the people have decided whom they want as their prime-minister.
With outright leads in 37 constituencies, the AIADMK, led by Ms. J. Jayalalithaa has emerged as the third largest party in India. This is a very big victory for Ms. Jayalalithaa, whose party did not achieve such big victories even under Dr.M.G.R. While the DMK has failed to even win a single constituency, the rainbow alliance has not made any impact in Tamil Nadu. Ms. Banerjee has led the AITMC to a fourth place finish while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) may finish with 14 constituencies under their belt. The story of these three parties is that though they have done really well on their own, they will not be a part of the new government at the centre. With Tamil Nadu facing many issues, it was absolutely essential that one of the parties went on board. But 37 MPs is no joke and it remains to be seen how the issues of TN are raised and addressed.
Overall it must have been a satisfying day for the BJP after exceeding the expextations of all analysts.
The writing is pretty much on the wall: AB KI BAAR MODI SARKAR!!!!!
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