BJP will Uproot Congress in 2014 Lok Sabha Election

Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Sunday claimed that Congress’ seats won’t cross three digits in the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Singh was talking to media persons during his visit to the city at Indore Press Club.

The Chhattisgarh chief minister said that the whole country is annoyed with corruption and inflation, so they want to put an end of Congress rule.

Asked on the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal and possible challenge it might pose to BJP’s prospects in Lok Sabha elections, Singh said that AAP has done hard work in Delhi in the last 1.5 years but still the public chose BJP as the single largest party in Delhi.

“BJP is the political power which is able to uproot Congress from the country,” he said adding that people now want NDA to return to power at the Centre. He claimed that both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have raced way ahead of those states which were geographically restructured as two separate states a decade ago.

Despite global recession, both the states maintained excellent growth rate of late. Singh claimed that he carries a long standing association with the Madhya Pradesh and Indore. Every time I start new political inning in Chhattisgarh, I seek blessings from Mahakal in Ujjain.

He is scheduled to seek offers prayers at Ujjain on Monday. On Naxalite menace back home, Singh claimed that thousands of youths have been recruited in CG police and they have been armed with latest weapons.

He, however, called for Integrated Action against naxals from all the states affected by this threat.

On being asked whether the public wants chief ministers who act like a chief executive office like him, Singh candidly mentioned that it’s all about financial management.

The states have limited resources and the CM is expected to act like a CEO for ensuring that additional funds are generated by optimum utilization of resources.

Source: DNA

Sardar Patel Statue to Drive Narendra Modi's Campaign

NEW DELHI: BJP plans to build Narendra Modi's campaign by an all-out mobilization for the Sardar Patel statue of unity in January that will see thousands of boxes fitted with electronic chips being tracked from a central control in Gujarat as they transport pieces of iron and soil to be used in the proposed memorial.

The use of a GIS tracking system will enable organizers to monitor panchayat level political meetings where the boxes with their contents will be "dedicated" to the nationalist causes the Sardar is believed to have espoused as India's first home minister.

Meetings and modest local yatras, BJP managers believe, will help build a saffron mood in favour of Modi in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections with the programme borrowing a leaf from the Ram shila pujan mobilization that the Sangh Parivar undertook for the Ayodhya movement in the late 1980s.

But in contrast to the highly polarizing message of the Ram shila pujan programme involving transport of bricks for the "construction" of a Ram temple, the Sardar Patel mobilization is focusing on a subtler nationalist sub-text that advocates decisive governance.

The uniform chip-fitted boxes are to be provided by the Sardar Patel Rashtriya Ektra Trust headed by Modi and are intended to be taken to as many destinations BJP state units can reach.

The central pitch of the Modi for PM campaign is expected to be around his "no nonsense, business-like" leadership that the party sees is an attractive contrast to a scam-hit Manmohan Singh regime, vulnerable to political attacks despite Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's rearguard action on corruption issues.

The Sardar Patel programme is to be followed by an ambitious voter outreach where BJP's estimated 3 crore members are to be tasked with contacting 10 voters each, setting a target of 30 crore electors. This will add the vote and note for Modi drive to collect small donations.

BJP intends to scan the updated voter lists that will be available in January 2014 and draw up targets for its state and district units to meet by February. The effort will look to collect data on voters like email and mobile contacts so that BJP's views reach individuals ahead of the next national election.

The brainstorming sessions held this week saw a direct involvement of Modi who seemed to have taken charge of the campaign more fully after the recent assembly elections concluded with BJP victories in three states.

Modi urged BJP's media faces to do their homework before appearing on television so that the party can come across as a credible outfit with consistent viewpoints.

The technological backbone of the BJP poll effort is being managed largely by Modi's office in Ahmedabad and Bangalore-based IT guru Rajesh Jain. The programmes being run are analyzing voter data to set campaign targets. BJP said its recent run for unity saw the participation of 50 lakh individuals.

Source: TOI

Why DMK Break with Congress is Good-News for Narendra Modi?

The DMK's decision to dump its Congress alliance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls is one more piece of evidence that power - or even the prospect of power - is the key to alliances. While this does not mean M Karunanidhi is about to seek an entry into the NDA under Narendra Modi, the smell of defeat that hangs around the Congress party is driving away allies, giving the BJP hope for 2014.

The unquestioned assertion till recently that Modi will find it impossible to get allies is dying a slow death.

The media - barring a few prescient ones like MJ Akbar - has been consistently wrong on the BJP's ability to attract allies, especially under Modi. This writer has always maintained that UPA and NDA are the result of pre- and post-poll power calculations, and not really about ideology. It is silly to believe that ideology alone is going to drive allies away (or bring in) from the BJP. The DMK's rethink tells us why.

We know that Karunanidhi was extremely unhappy with the Congress for not shielding A Raja and, worse, his own daughter Kanimozhi, from going to jail in connection with the 2G scam. But he didn't quit the UPA as long as staying in power - or being close to the centre of power - was a realistic prospect. Now that the Congress has all the looks of a loser, he is willing to abandon it and look elsewhere for love and affection. It may not be the BJP, for Karunanidhi made it clear that the old love ended with Atal Behari Vajpayee, but who knows whether he will shift further depending on results in May 2014.

In fact, the DMK is not the only party shuffling away from the Congress. Others are looking furtively left and right to see how they can cosy up to the BJP before the next election - their only anxiety being calculations on whether they will lose the Muslim vote in pursuit of the additional votes a BJP alliance can fetch.

In Andhra Pradesh, both Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy are not averse to a BJP tieup, covert or overt. What they are looking for is a fig leaf of secularism. In Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa is already game, but one can't rule out Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (S) also getting into a wink-and-a-nod alliance - as it did in a recent Lok Sabha bypoll which it lost. In Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa has always been considered a willing alliance partner for Modi, and the smaller parties – PMK, MDMK, etc – are waiting for cues from the bigger two parties to jump onto the bandwagon. They have the luxury of deciding after May 2014.

In Assam, the AGP will probably team up with BJP, and post-poll one can't rule out Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik working out an arrangement for outside support if the Modi-led BJP crosses the 200-mark. A tieup with Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand is a distinct possibility, too.

In Haryana, the BJP is already in an alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi, and an expansion of the alliance to include INLD cannot be ruled out. In Maharashtra and Punjab, the BJP has its strongest ideological allies in the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena. It is, in fact, interesting that the Akali Dal’s Naresh Gujral is playing match-maker in the BJP’s search for allies. Gujral, according to The Economic Times, is the middleman talking to Naidu and others who are wary about a direct tieup. The irony is obvious: the Akali Dal is as “communal”, with its Sikh linkages, as the BJP, with its Hindu leanings, but this is how secularism works in India – through liberal doses of hypocrisy.

However, we don’t have to look at the behaviour of political parties for affirming the notion that it is power that unites, and loss of power that separates. There is now ample evidence that Muslims in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan started shifting towards parties that looked like winning rather than sticking to the Congress. In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party harvested its first large chunk of the Muslim vote, and in Rajasthan and MP, the BJP got a good share of Muslim votes. Muslims are getting rid of their fears that if they abandon Congress, they are going to be losers.

Source: FirstPost

Narendra Modi Offers BJP ticket to Sourav Ganguly: Report

Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has been offered a ticket to contest the general elections next year by the BJP but is undecided on whether to accept the offer.

It is learnt that the offer has come from the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, who has promised to make the Bengal sports icon the sports minister in the Cabinet if the party comes to power.

"Yes, I've an offer. But I'm still undecided on what to do. I've been busy for last few days... I'll let you know soon," Ganguly was quoted as saying in a leading Bengali daily.

The speculation has been doing rounds after he met Varun Gandhi through a common friend in the capital in mid November.

Varun, the national general secretary of BJP, is also the observer for West Bengal.

In the Trinamool Congress-ruled Bengal with 42 seats, BJP has a solitary presence in Darjeeling.

Ganguly, however, could not be reached for a reaction to the report.

Source:Financial Express

BJP could Get Clean Win in Delhi-Congress is in No-3 Position

The results of the post-poll survey by Lokniti (CSDS) for CNN-IBN and The Week confirm the broad trends indicated in the other exit poll/post-poll surveys disclosed on 4 December on various channels: the BJP is clearly ahead of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The Lokniti poll, based on a sample survey of 2,263 voters across 28 Delhi constituencies (out of a total of 70) should be fairly indicative since it was conducted the next day, after the heat and dust of polling day had settled down.

The vote shares indicated by this post-poll survey give the BJP 33 percent (down 3 percent from 2008, but comfortably ahead of the No 2), AAP 27 percent (a spectacular debut), and just 23 percent for the Congress (down 17 percent from 2008, when it was a two-horse race).

Given the usual three percent margin of error, these numbers could lead to several possible outcomes in terms of seat count, given below in a declining order of probability.

1: The likeliest possibility is a clear win, or even a sweep, for the BJP. In a three-way vote split, the party with the largest chunk of the vote often gets a disproportionate number of seats – especially if its votes are concentrated in the right areas. This is what happened in Uttar Pradesh in 2012, when the Samajwadi Party got a clear majority with a vote share of less than 30 percent, and with the BSP just three percentage points behind.

By raising its vote share by just 3.7 percent to 29.15 percent, Akhilesh Yadav saw his seat count rise from 97 in 2007 to a record 224 in 2012. The BSP’s 4.5 percent loss slashed its seats from 206 to just 80.

Is this what is in store in Delhi? We will know on Sunday.

2: The second possibility is that of the BJP emerging as the single largest party. In this case, it will have AAP breathing down its neck – resulting in a hung house. This could happen is the BJP’s vote-share is evenly distributed while AAP’s votes are concentrated in critical pockets. In this eventuality, it is not inconceivable that AAP could form a government with some of the smaller parties like the BSP or independents, who have a 17 percent vote share between them. It is, however, not clear if this will get them a proportionate number of seats. Some of the vote share may just be wasted among also-rans.

3: The third possibility is of the AAP actually emerging as the biggest party. Despite a lower vote share, it may end up with a higher seat share because it may have concentrated its vote-gathering efforts in the right pockets. If this happens – but it is not likely – it will be a tribute to AAP’s ability to micro-manage its voter messaging in the areas most hospitable to its debut.

4: The only outcome that seems unlikely is that of Congress springing a surprise. Not only is the Congress not likely to win, it is even less likely to emerge as the single largest party in the Delhi assembly given the huge disenchantment of the voter with both Sheila Dikshit’s government and the UPA government at the centre. Voter dissatisfaction was high, with 56 percent of those polled saying they were unhappy with the Delhi government and an even larger 63 percent saying they loathed the Congress-led UPA government. If the vagaries of the first-past-the-post system gives the Congress more seats, it will be a travesty.

So what are the broader messages coming from the CNN-IBN post-poll survey, assuming the outcome on Sunday pans out almost like this?

First, it is obvious that both the BJP and AAP are gaining from the Congress party’s double anti-incumbency – both in Delhi and at the centre. The middle class vote is clearly divided in Delhi for the assembly elections, with younger voters clearly opting for Arvind Kejriwal, and the older (and more upper caste) voters preferring the BJP. The split is evident from the top two issues mentioned by voters – price-rise and corruption. The former is the BJP’s top advantage against a faltering Congress, and the latter Kejriwal’s calling card.

Second, the Narendra Modi factor is clearly at work – and has helped the BJP. The survey clearly shows that Modi’s choice, Harsh Vardhan, as CM candidate improved the BJP’s prospects. Thus, even though Arvind Kejriwal was the first choice of CM for 27 percent of those sampled, Harsh Vardhan was close behind at 22 percent – up from just 2 percent in October. Harsh Vardhan was clearly an inspired choice for the BJP. Dikshit was a distant third with 15 percent.

Third, there’s more good news for the BJP from the Delhi vote. A significant percentage of AAP voters also like the idea of having Narendra Modi as PM. While 49 percent of those polled wanted him as PM, 49 percent of AAP voters also liked Modi, not to speak of 20 percent of Congress voters. What this suggests is that if the current mood holds till April-May 2014, the Modi-led BJP should be able to overcome the AAP challenge. The Congress faces a rout, unless Kejriwal pulls off something to dent the BJP vote and make the voting patterns messy.

However, this looks unlikely since voters tend to move towards a winner and not the loser. Modi’s preferential vote is 49 percent, more than Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Manmohan Singh put together. Delhi’s voters are in no doubt about whom they want as PM.

Fourth, the electorate clearly is not swayed by freebies and government favours. Sheila Dikshit’s government has already begun implementing the cheap food scheme, and she courted the middle class by regularising many unauthorised colonies before the elections. The Congress is not going to win 2014 by mere pre-election bribery at the taxpayers’ expense. It is too far gone for that.

However, none of the gainers – BJP and AAP – can afford to rest on their laurels. While the Congress has the looks of a loser, both BJP and AAP are attracting the same segments. This is apparent when we see the narrow gap between the two parties in the fight for the middle class vote. While the BJP leads 39 percent to 30 percent among the upper classes, and 30-24 even among the poor, the gap is narrowest in the middle and lower classes – at 33-29 and 32-27 respectively.

AAP and BJP will have to figure out whether their voters this year will stay with them for the general elections, or whether they have to work harder to undercut the other.

The double-incumbency has merely enlarged the non-Congress vote, but both AAP and the BJP have to work hard again to grab the lion’s share. The vote in 2014 is about the national government where the issues are different; the BJP has to play a smarter game than it has done so far in Delhi, where AAP has nearly managed to upstage it.

Source: FirstPost

Exit-Poll Result: Delhi-MP-Rajasthan-Chhattisgarh 2013 Assembly Elections

Source: Business-standard

Assembly Elections: Exit Polls Predict 4-0 Sweep for BJP in Delhi MP Rajasthan Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: The BJP appears to be on course to make a total 4-0 sweep of the latest round of elections to the legislative assemblies of the four states of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, if exit poll results released on Wednesday are to be believed.

These polls, which involve interviews with voters as they emerge from polling booths, show the BJP wresting Rajasthan away from the Congress, holding on to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and emerging as the single larges party in Delhi.

If confirmed by actual results on Sunday, an emphatic victory of such a scale will give the main opposition party strong momentum going into the 2014 elections and will be a major shot in the arm for its PM candidate Modi, who had campaigned extensively. For the Congress, it could trigger a hard look at its strategy and increase the pressure on it to resort to course corrections. "If the exit polls are showing 4-0 in favour of BJP, it's clearly a victory for Modi," said political analyst Dipankar Gupta. While the Congress was dismissive, the BJP made little effort to hide sounding triumphant. "This is as per our expectations. The party and workers put in effort and the icing on the cake was Modi.

We feel that the large percentage of polling among youth and women especially were due to his emphasis on it and we expect this role to grow as general elections approach," said spokesman Prakash Javadekar.

In Delhi, which was the last of the four states to go to polls and where voting was extended till 7.15 pm on Wednesday amid unprecedentedly high voter turnout, the jury was still out with none of the pollsters committing on just who would form the government.

While all polls gave the highest number of seats to BJP, the debutant Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal was being credited with winning anywhere between six and 18 seats, an unusual feat for a new political party. One exit poll — the Headlines Today poll conducted by ORG — gave BJP 41 seats in the 70-member assembly while most others gave it 30-40 seats.

But Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who put up an almost lonely battle at times, dismissed the polls. "Every time it is the same thing, you always underestimate Congress and we are voted in by the people. I will wait till the (December) 8th to comment," said the three-time chief minister. In the 2004 and 2009 general elections, most pollsters failed to see the Congress victory.

While Congress was dismissive, BJP made little effort to hide sounding triumphant. "This is as per our expectations. We always said that both our chief ministers would return, and in Rajasthan and Delhi it will be a homecoming after a gap. The party and workers put in efforts and the icing on the cake was Narendra Modi. We feel that the large percentage of polling among youth and women especially were due to his emphasis on it and we expect this role to grow as general elections approach," said spokesman Prakash Javadekar.

In Chhattisgarh, where the race was considered to be tight one and BJP appeared shaky after the first round of polling in Bastar, all four exit polls showed its Chief Minister Raman Singh forming the government again. The only exit poll which showed him two seats shy of the magic number of 46 in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was the India TV-C Voter poll.

Source: Economic Times

Modi’s ‘Lalkar’ Rally: New Stand on Article-370, Hints at New Ally

Jammu: Narendra Modi‘s ‘lalkar‘ rally, his first in the state since being made the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, may prove to be the game changer for his party in the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
The rally must perhaps be the first BJP rally held in the state, where an estimated ninety thousand people crowded inside and outside the stadium to listen to the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
Some like 35-year-old Parveena Chowdry travelled more than three hundred kilometres from a remote village in Kupwara in north Kashmir to listen to Modi.
She said that she had left from home two days ago so that she could make it to the rally in time. She was among over an estimated six thousand people who travelled to Jammu from Kashmir for the rally.
“We came in a bus from Kupwara to listen to Modiji. He will change the discrimination meted out to the Gujjars of Kashmir when he will become the prime minster of the country,” Chowdry said.

The entire Jammu province was shut today thanks to the rally and was the atmosphere inside the stadium was electric. When Modi arrived at the venue and shook hands with a man wearing a skull cap, his audience cheered. But it was the content of the BJP prime ministerial candidate’s speech that may offer some clues for the party’s plans in the state for the upcoming national elections.

Modi and party president Rajnath Singh spoke on topics ranging from about Article 370 of the constitution, corruption, underdevelopment, the incursion into Indian territory by Chinese troops and even herbal medicine. They also took digs at the ruling National Conference and Congress.

However, not one BJP leader who spoke from the dais said anything about the Kashmir-centric Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It was almost as surprising as the party’s newly softened stance on Article 370 of the constitution.

While the BJP and PDP have been loggerheads with each in state politics, the rally may offer hints of what the party’s strategy may be in the 2014 elections.

Conscious of where he was speaking, Modi preferred to speak about development and progress rather than local politics or even hitting out at separatists, barring a few passing statements.

He attempted to connect with the youth, a large number of whom were present at the rally, by asking why the state didn’t have national institutions of learning like IITs and IIMs, like neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

Modi also hit out at the state and central government saying that they were not interested in ensuring the progress of the state.

He promised that if voted to power the BJP would follow the policy model set by the Former Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who he said was the first prime minster to travel to Kashmir after the conflict erupted in the state.

The Gujarat Chief Minister chose to personally target his J&K counterpart by alleging that Omar Abdullah‘s sister didn’t enjoy the same rights he did.

The rights that your chief minister has, does his sister Sara Pilot enjoy the same rights? No, because she married outside the state. I am not talking about Hindus or Muslims. I am talking about the people of J&K.”

Development comes when there is integration. Men and women must have same rights. Should there be discrimination again women in J&K? Shouldn’t the injustice stop.” Modi said to his audience, that responded with cheers.

Abdullah as expected did not take Modi’s statements lying down and took to Twitter to counter.

“He very conveniently used me and my sister as examples to illustrate a point that has NO bearing in truth. Either he lies or is ill informed,” Abdullah tweeted.

The excitement surrounding the the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate’s rally was very visible throughout the day and even offers hints to the BJP’s strategy for the upcoming polls. If the party is able to sustain its activists’ enthusiasm and the Modi wave survives in Jammu, it could have an impact on the results of the next assembly and parliament elections in the state.

Source: FirstPost