Maharashtra elections

A week more and Maharashtra goes into election. Lots of new developments took place in last couple of days. All should be called significant. On one side, BJP-SHIVSENA coalition (25 years old) broke, and on the other side (CONGRESS-NCP) coalition also broke.

This has made elections very intresting. It is a 5 cornered fight now. And I believe, this will really bring the real image of all the parties in front of the voters.

On one side, Shivsena is still sulking on the breaking of the partnership. They are trying to create a picture that it is all BJP's fault. It probably worked for initial 2-3 days of campaigning, but now, it has started appearing that Shivsena has no other agenda to present. Seems like Shivsena is doomed.

BJP seems to have chosen the high road. They are as far as possible neglecting what shivsena or other parties are saying regarding the breaking of coalition. They have brought their star campaigner, Modi, who is pitching once again for Development.

Seems like Modi wave is yet to be over and may help BJP.

Congress and NCP seem to have no agenda.

While Congress is trying to encash some developments like monorail, metro and worli -bandra sealink, they have no other thing to show. All these developments are part of Mumbai. What about rest of Maharashtra. No advertisement on that front.

NCP is also trying to make some profit out of the development in last 10 years. But some how they are not able to encash it. Their main power resides on the local popularity of their candidate. Some regions of Maharashtra are their forts, untouchable. At rest of the places, hardly a possibility.

The fifth corner is MNS. Raj Thackrey is another one than BJP who is pushing on development card. He has released the blue print for Maharashtra's development(available at http://mnsblueprint.org/)

A quick look shows that he has done his homework. As always, he impresses with his oratory. But on the backdrop of his Loksabha results, its difficult to say, how good he is at the moment. But, my guess is, he could be underdog.

Overall, its going to be a tough contest. Most probably, it will be a hung parliament.

I feel BJP will make the most of it, followed by NCP and Shivsena, then Congress and MNS.But its difficult to pinpoint the number of  seats each party will win. That requires a little more detailed study. 

But one thing is sure, all the leaders shouting at each other at the moment, will soon become friends once their need for each others help to form a government  becomes the major intention.

Every body in Maharashtra will be eagerly waiting for October 19. The big day

Kejriwal's AAP: A mystery story

Arvind Kejriwal: A name that rose to height in the shortest known time. Till two years back, he was just known as the right hand of Anna Hajare. Over the time, he started making his own image as he split away from Hajare.

He had started creating ripples in Delhi zone. But still most of us had no idea what he is going to achieve in just a period of few months.

And then assembly election took place that changed the whole equation of politics in India. A brand new party named AAP came into picture. It not only showed ground to the leading party Congress but also inhibited BJP from forming government. It showed all of us that there is another and clean way of winning elections by mere winning confidence of people. Things were all going right for Kejriwal and company.

But then Congress offered to give support to this party to form government and things started going down side there on. While some still believed that AAP's intention are clean, others started questioning their stand of joining hands those who they fought against.

Anyway, Government was formed, ministers were nominated and Kejriwal took 2 big decision related to water and electricity issue in Delhi. All this with in few hours of becoming Chief Minister. Some appreciated it and many condemned. Some ministers took their job seriously and started taking tough steps to improvise the situation. But few others took wrong signals from Kejriwal's victory over Shiela Dikshit and started making noise. One of their leaders directly challenged  Rahul Gandhi and Rajnath Singh/ Narendra Modi to fight elections against him and that too from Amethi. He is becoming the face of AAP for making atrocious comments.

In the mean time another minister raided some residential areas of foreign nationals creating troubles for AAP. We do not know what all actually happened and who should be believed, but some how a picture is getting painted that AAP is not able to manage the success they got.

What made it more difficult to digest is the way in which Kejriwal joined in the agitation to  suspend some policemen. Probably he is right in demanding that, but somehow picture seems to be getting fuzzy with every new day coming.

The worst part that AAP has decided to do which most of the "Aam Aadmi" is not able to understand is the way they are trying to make it large by participating in as many as possible Lok Sabha seats. Most of us expected them to work in Delhi and show every body how things can be done in better fashion and give a good governance. But instead they are trying to make their party bigger by going nationwide.

Lots of things are happening in too small time. It has started appearing that this success of AAP might end up being a short stint that might extinguish very soon. Time has all the answer and all we can do is wait and watch and probably take a right decision of we get a chance to contribute.

AAP at the helm

Finally a good thing is happening. Arvind Kejriwal will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi on Saturday. This event is going to make lots of changes. What meaning this development has?

This goes on to prove a point that if a bunch of clean figured person come together and decide they want to change the system, and they take proper steps, the outcome is surely positive. With in a span of 2-3 years, a person rise from an unknown personality directly to the Chief Minister position, is a miracle that doesn't take place every day. This reminds me of  the movie "Nayak" of Anil Kapoor where he becomes the CM of a state just for one day. Of course such events of bringing an unknown personality to limelight do have happened earlier like in case of our PMs ChandraShekhar, I.S Gujral, Devegowda etc. Most of the time these positions were governed by none other than Congress party. Those ministers pretty much just filled the PM position. Congress kept all the chords in their hands and when they wanted they cut it loose. 

Even now, AAP party is making government with the backing of Congress. But the difference is this time Congress can not control it. AAP will work in its way and there won't be much in the hands of Congress.  It will try to spend some time because they know this is not a good time for Congress. But I do expect that this Government probably won't see year 2015. With in a period of 1 year, this government will go down the drain and we may expect elections soon.

Now, its AAP's duty to keep this in mind and make the best use of available time. Do some real work so that people will believe that there is a better way of doing  politics. They should keep in mind that they just have few months to prove themselves. 

Congress on the other hand has fall prey to its own tactics. I wonder why they needed to give support to AAP. By doing this, they are digging their grave. On one side now they can not withdraw their support with out any strong reason. At least for some time. In the mean time, AAP will go on showing how bad governance was given by Congress. No wonder the party workers are unhappy with their core committee's decision of giving support and we saw some violent attack on their party head quarter itself by their own workers. Congress seem to have lost its sense wondering  which way to go to make a better situation themselves. As said, pretty sure they will withdraw support in few months and try for new elections. But this time it may not work in their favor. 

Year 2014 is bringing lots of interesting changes along with it. If not for other reasons, changing politics in India is surely a reason to welcome new year