BJP loses big!

 Politics  3 Responses »
Dec 082008
 

I’m surprised that the headline on CNN-IBN’s website reads “Cong., BJP win and lose, no verdict for 2009“. Is IBN carrying a brief for the BJP?

One could argue that the Congress won Mizoram, Delhi and Rajasthan, while the BJP held on to Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. But that doesn’t give the whole picture.

Firstly, the BJP lost Rajasthan. And it lost big. There was a negative swing of 42 seats, a fifth of the seats in the Rajasthan State Assembly. The BJP did managed to stay in power in Madhya Pradesh, but it dropped 30 seats.

The BJP wasn’t able to topple Shiela Dixit in Delhi, despite the fact that her government has been in power for 10 years – not many Chief Ministers have been able to stave off that much anti-incumbency.

This debacle for the BJP comes soon after a national crisis in which the country’s attention has been focused on the Congress Government alleged laxity in dealing with the Mumbai terror attack of 11/26. This was a major loss of face for the Congress; it had to ship out the Union Home Minister as well as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his deputy. The news media, acting like kids, had placed the blame at the Government’s door. Yet the BJP was unable to capitalize on this.

I’m wondering if the BJP is at all ready to face the coming 2009 general elections. Let’s face it. They cannot win in Kerala and West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, no party wants to align with them. Chandrababu Naidu might not go with them in Andhra Pradesh. Add to this the debacle in Delhi and Rajasthan. And they are not the force they once were in Uttar Pradesh. Where will they get the numbers from then?

 Posted by Vijay Narayanan at 4:55 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rajnikanth to politics?

 People, Politics  5 Responses »
Nov 122008
 

News from Chennai is that L.K. Advani, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, met with Rajnikanth at his Poes Garden house yesterday. And speculation is rife that this might signal Rajnikanth’s arasiyal pravesam.

My opinion is that Rajni should keep out of politics, even campaigning.

And that too, not for the BJP, which has proved during the past 4 years that it is out of touch with the common man, out of touch with India’s national interests, and is worse than the Congress. Bumbling on ideology, inconsistent on issues, and with a dangerous mindset that opposes the selfsame programmes under the Congress regime that the BJP proposed in the past, the BJP’s intellectual void is as glaring as its inability to forge and retain alliances.

Supporters of Rajni think that just because MGR was successful in politics, so will their thalaivar be. But they forget that MGR had a long association with politics. And he did not debut as a Chief Minister. Contrast this with Rajnikanth, whose situation is similar to that of the BJP above. He has had no single policy stance; he cannot articulate his positions clearly; he chooses his friends in politics based on his whims.

Meendum Rajini? What do you think?

 Posted by Vijay Narayanan at 4:59 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,
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