The good:
- Elimination of the left powers: Rahul Gandhi was perhaps right to have commented that the Left’s view about the nuclear deal was atleast 20 years old. Left was made to pay for the blunder of their alienation from the Congress and how. Mr. Karat is sure to bear the brunt of promoting a Third Front.
- Decline of regional parties: This has been one of the positive outcomes this time. Congress has reported an increased tally of 56 votes. Out of these just 17 have come from BJP and the remaining have been grabbed from the regional parties. Its heartening to see that the silly agendas of downplaying the use of computers by SP and caste-based politics by a certain ‘Behenji’ have been out rightly rejected.
- Dynasty politics: ‘Inheritance’ not ‘merit’ has become the norm for the Congress. Rahul was silently anointed as the vanguard shadowing all other senior leaders within the Congress who have far more credentials. Perhaps the latter have one big deficiency – they are not of the Gandhi clan.
- BJP sits in opposition: A party that stands for development and decisive leadership has been handed another term in the opposition. What NDA did for India in its five-year term speaks for itself. But the voters agree otherwise and one’s got to respect the mandate.
- Scramble for power: As soon as the leads and wins became clear there was a surge of activity at the centre. Wherein Congress got lucrative offers from smaller parties to up their ante in the formation of the central government, BJP faced an internal tussle for the leader of Opposition.
- Rise of Mamata Bannerjee: The voters from Bengal have been a surprise package. After what Mamata did in Singur, she has managed to garner a major increase in popularity. This has been very very disheartening.
- Vote bank politics click: The Congress' appeasement strategies – OBC quota, student intake in non-existent IITs, removal of POTA, procrastination of death penalty of Afzal – have found a wide audience among the voters.
