Statewide and National runup to 2014 General elections

[Yagnasri]

DMK is going to be ready for reconcilliation even now. INC is just like Mugals - they want to keep the regional forces in their places by occational militory action and few killings. DMK gained a lot and at the same time cause a lot of reputational damage to INC with their loot agenda for 9 years and now that the next elections are around want to leave. Even if any one is there in INC place they will want to teach DMK a lesson. But not this kind of stupid and blatent action. This only shows INC is becoming more and more arrogent and over confident.

Chidambaram cheated and "won" election last time and this time he may have to contest from Assam for Rajya Sabha He after all may be our next PM as per INC plan

[Sushupti]

Raids at Stalin's residence have stopped. Looklike someone wanted to damage Chidu. So who cut this latest cheese?.

[Sushupti]

@htTweets: CBI raid on Stalin may or may not be political vendetta, says Karunanidhi: reports #ht

[Yogi_G]

Chidu has a very sweet relationship with DMK, especially after his last election fiasco. Many a rumour on who helped him with winning etc. Karunanidhi using his leverage within the congress to show that future PM material can be made to speak against congress.

Flexing of muscles from both sides going on. Who the hell cares about party affiliation, Sri Lankan Tamils and ethics anyway. Strongest person wins.

[Sri]

Mulayam Is supposed to be biding his time to stop supporting the UPA govt per Hind Times.
Maybe after May11 TSP elections they will pull this govt down.
Could lead to instability in govt with a firm govt in TSP.
Same as during 1999 Kargil.

Grapevine is that Mulayam and Akhilesh wouldn't want an election during or immediately after summer. The power situation is bad. Ditto with Mamta Di. Congress wouldn't want an election immediately after December when they may lose 5 or 4 states.

Interesting times.

[Yagnasri]

Some Deep drama is going on. Hard to believe CBI acted without any high level sanction. May be just a scare tactic as DMK is going to support INC when needed seriously. Loot based relationships are too deep just to cut in a blink.

Singe day polling in Karnataka - EVM drama or something else. I am not sure. BJP urgently need to do something drastic at least to save its face.

[rajkumar]

Some Deep drama is going on. Hard to believe CBI acted without any high level sanction. May be just a scare tactic as DMK is going to support INC when needed seriously. Loot based relationships are too deep just to cut in a blink.

This is to scare SP and make sure that they stay in line...if INC was serious then ED would have filed its chargesheet against Kanzi

[Muppalla]

Mamta, DMK, Mulayam, Maya are all like Mir Jaffer and Mir Qasim of modern India. They will finally be with congress party only. Discussing their moves trying to predict winners in WWF fake-boxing games.

[RamaY]

AP is interesting...

Thanks JohneeG garu.

- INC has good candidates in Andhra area for MPs (some of these guys need the party just to get that 15% vote)
- INC is wooing MIM, TRS and YSRCP (main opponent TDP and YSRCP)
- TDP is wooing MIM (main opponents YSRCP and INC)
- YSRCP is wooing MIM and TRS (main opponent TDP and INC)
- TRS is wooing MIM (main opponent TDP and INC)
- MIM is wooing INC and YSRCP (main opponent BJP)

Now OwaisiSr said that he would do anything to make sure that NM doesn't come to power.
YSRCP head Vijayamma said that they support INC in center
TDP will not support INC in center. May not support BJP either. Prefers 3rd Front.
TRS will support INC or BJP in center depending on who is in power
MIM will support only INC in center

So INC has the support of YSRCP, TRS, MIM and INC to get in to power in center. This is the logic behind Lanco Rajagopal's comment that INC will get 35+ seats in AP in 2014 elections.

To break this logjam BJP should work for pre-poll alliances. Potential candidates are TDP and TRS.

But TDP is investing too much in muslim vote. So cannot/will not join BJP in pre-poll/post-poll alliance.

TRS is the only possible candidate. We have seen some early signs for this but we need to wait till last moment. A TRS+BJP combine can hope to win 6-8 MP seats in Telangana.

Coming to Andhra/RS regions.

I think BJP should approach the non-CBN kamma leaders. As posted earlier 5Kamma MPs are there in Congress. These people are able to win despite being INC using their Kamma networks. Kamma's vote for these candidate irrespective of the parties. These candidates are

1. Rayapati Sambasivarao - Potential candidate
2. Kavuri Sambasivarao - Potential candidate
3. Dhaggubati Purandareswari - Potential candidate for her husband was in BJP for some time.
4. Lagadapati Rajagopal - He cannot come out INC for his anti-T stand

Two more seats that can tilt towards BJP are
1. Narasapuram - Where Actor Krishnam Raju won. If a Raju candidate is in the field, it will bring BJP some chances
2. Rajamandry - Can Jayaprada be pulled in? This is going to be an interesting contest between INC - Vundavalli Arunkumar; TDP - Muralimohan/Balakrishna and BJP can take in between.

MIM Extends Friendly Hand To TDP!

At a time when there are widespread speculations that Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) would join hands with YSR Congress party in the next elections, it has surprisingly started inclining towards the Telugu Desam Party.

MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi on Thursday held talks with senior TDP leaders and sought the party’s support to the MIM candidate in the elections to the lone MLC seat in Hyderabad region. The TDP leaders are learnt to have responded positively and told Owaisi that they would get back to him after discussing with party president N Chandrababu Naidu.

For quite some time, there have been indications that the MIM might join hands with the TDP and its president Asaduddin Owaisi in his interviews to the media did not rule out the possibility. It was more or less confirmed when the MIM followed the TDP line by not participating in the no-confidence motion against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in the assembly, moved by YSR Congress party along with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Perhaps, Owaisis were convinced that the TDP would not go back to the BJP fold in the coming years.

[RajeshA]

Those who are in "secular" camp need not be supported by Islamists. Those who are on brink need to be brought in - CBN, NiKu, Mamata, etc.

[ramana]

@ibnlive
I strongly disapprove of CBI raid on Stalin: Chidambaram

As Finance Minister and CBI being an economic offences agency wouldnt he be in the loop? Or is he trying to rub salt and chilli into the mix?

[ramana]

RamaY, CBN was wooing the non-Ashraf Muslims of AP anyway. If MIM which is a hot bed of Nizami Ashrafs also throws its lot with CBN, then TDP is on its way to be the Samajwadi Party of AP. If so there will be a reaction by way of a BSP type formation. So instead of Karnataka model look at UP model for AP.

I see a Dilli Billi hand in all this fracturing and rearranging going on.
Every state that has a large number of lok sabha MPs is going through chaos.

[RamaY]

^ Agree.

Looks like INC is manufacturing a Turd-front in the absence of a sunny-forecast for itself in 2014. Key actors are
SP, BSP, TDP, TMC, DMK, NCP, NP, JD(S) - UP+AP+TN+MH+OR+KT = 80+40+40+40+20+20 = 240 seats in question.

[ShyamSP]

^ Agree.

Looks like INC is manufacturing a Turd-front in the absence of a sunny-forecast for itself in 2014. Key actors are
SP, BSP, TDP, TMC, DMK, NCP, NP, JD(S) - UP+AP+TN+MH+OR+KT = 80+40+40+40+20+20 = 240 seats in question.

Yep. This is the key!

As long as MIM partnership is limited to MIM strong areas, it may be okay for TDP. MIM is not trusted partner given its relationship with INC and its goonda elements (YSR). PRP, TRS, YSRC, MIM are are parties aligned to INC interests not TDP. Whether this is smart move or utter stupid move only time will tell.

TDP seems to be consumed by strategies and tactics to make it like SP of UP and is sorely missing NTR's gutsy moves against any politicking.

[ashkrishna]

even if Modi contests for PM in 2014. I don't know how he'll get the numbers.

http://tehelka.com/the-modi-card-and-the-muslim-ace/

[Lilo]

^^ Pasting the full article. Clearly reveals Congrezzi plan for their muslim sheep flock.
See how Tehelka picks and projects the most rabid Islamist types among their lot as the legitimate leaders of the Muslim "Votebank" .
Quite evident from the article that all these Maulana Madanis or Tehelka's or Jamaat-e-Islamis are the German shepherds keeping the flock together for their Congrezzi Mafia family.

Note:Article mentions the Census 2011 to be putting the muslims to be "almost 15%" of population .

The Modi Card And The Muslim Ace

India’s Muslims, goes the conventional wisdom, are a votebank. That bank is now working aggressively towards becoming the central bank of Indian politics with a view to dominating its future political currency. If conversations, events and initiatives of the past four weeks are an indicator, Muslim social and political organisations as well as prominent Muslims have evolved a one-point agenda: to deny the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongman Narendra Modi a shot at becoming India’s prime minister after the 16th General Election that is due in a year. Their tactic: defeat the BJP and its potential allies in every Lok Sabha constituency where the Muslim vote can sway the result.

“Narendra Modi is the No. 1 enemy of India’s Muslims,” says Salman Hussain, a fiery Islamic scholar who teaches at one of India’s most influential Islamic seminaries, the 19th-century Darul Uloom Nadwatul, at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. “If Modi becomes prime minister, more Muslims will be massacred, more mosques demolished.” While that may be rabble-rousing at its worst, there is no denying that the anti-Modi sentiment among India’s nearly 180 million Muslims has deepened since a cry went up in the BJP last month to name Modi the party’s top prospect for the Lok Sabha election.

“The BJP is fundamentally an anti- Muslim party and Modi proved that with his role in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat,” says Arshad Madani, who leads a faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an influential sociopolitical organisation of clerics. Five months after Modi became chief minister, more than 2,000 Muslims died in February-March 2002 in violence by Hindu zealots of the BJP-RSS after a train fire killed 57 Hindu passengers. “Muslims know that if the BJP comes to power, their troubles will worsen.”

Indeed, the chant of Modi-as-PM that shot up in decibels at an all-India meet of the BJP in New Delhi in early March set the cat among the pigeons. Until then, the Muslim electorate across India was widely disenchanted with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for unkept promises in its nine-year-rule. They were miffed as the UPA has failed to introduce reservations for them in jobs and educational institutions, a pre-election promise. They were also angered by the sudden hanging in February of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who had been on death row for years after being convicted as a conspirator in the 2001 Parliament attack.

Muslim leaders have long slammed the Congress for what they see as its failure to improve the Muslims’ lot after a panel led by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar reported in 2006 that Muslims were one of India’s most neglected social groups in terms of education, employment, poverty and health.

Disappointment has also been rife among the Muslims at the refusal of the Congress-led UPA to declare the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the premier Muslim educational institution set up in the 19th century, a minority institution as the Muslims have long demanded. “AMU had hoped Congress President Sonia Gandhi would make the announcement in her telephonic address at the university’s last convocation,” says political commentator Hafiz Nomani. “But she referred to such a major issue only in passing.”

But with Modi’s name to the fore, the foremost concern among Muslims now is to stop the BJP from returning to power in New Delhi at any cost.

The clamour for Modi has also upended efforts within the BJP to draw in Muslim support, chiefly through a Muslim-only ‘morcha’ under the aegis of its parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as well as by Modi’s efforts in recent months to mollycoddle Muslim clerics as well as ordinary Muslims in his state to dust up his image. The demand for Modi so worried BJP stalwart LK Advani, who was the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2009, that he had to caution his party at the March meeting that it will have to find ways to attract Muslim voters if it truly wants to regain power at the Centre.

“It is true that some Muslims have supported the BJP in recent years,” admits Qasim Rasool Ilyas, a functionary with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a 40-year-old community outfit that oversees the implementation of the civil laws. “By putting Modi forward, the BJP runs the risk of losing even that little support.”

From Lucknow in the north to Hyderabad in the south and Kolkata in the east, the dominant discourse among the Muslim community is as follows: coalition governments that have run India unbroken since 1996 will continue as the norm. Over the past 14 years, the BJP and the Congress party have led two coalition governments each. Whichever of the two parties wins more seats at the next General Election would team up with the floaters to notch a majority and form the government.

Except for those political parties that are direct opponents of the Congress in their regions and would, therefore, never join hands with it, or the Communists who would never pair up with the Hindu sectarian BJP, all other regional parties are capable of going either way. Hence, Muslims should vote against the BJP, its allies and the fence-sitters who fail to unequivocally clarify before the elections that they would have no truck with the BJP.

“Wherever a party’s relationship with the BJP is suspect, it would lose the Muslim vote,” says psephologist Yogendra Yadav, who has joined the recently launched anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party. Says Ilyas: “The Muslim is no more attached to any one party. He now votes tactically to defeat the BJP and this is how it will be in 2014.”

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a social and cultural outfit of which Ilyas has been a member for decades, is currently preparing an extensive advisory to guide Muslim voters across most of the Lok Sabha’s 543 constituencies. It will be released before the next elections to help Muslim voters decide the best way to utilise their vote in defeating the BJP and its allies. Jamaat volunteers and its affiliate outfits, such as its student, women and youth wings, would be pressed into disseminating the message among Muslims so that “secular” candidates may enter the Lok Sabha.

Several other organisations, such as the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, a body of Muslim intellectuals, too, plan to release similar guides on supporting “secular” candidates. “We aim to educate the Muslim voters on the best candidate in their constituency who is secular,” says Mushawarat chief Zafarul Islam Khan.

Elsewhere, efforts have been launched by scholar Salman Hussain of Lucknow along with Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal from Assam, whose fledgling political party, the All India United Democratic Front, has made rapid strides in that state. The two have now called a meeting in Delhi where they aim to assemble disparate elements from smaller Muslim political outfits to chart out a common strategy, much like Hussain had tried in the 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, to little success.

Muslim leaders reckon the community’s vote can make and unmake pretenders to 100-150 Lok Sabha seats. These seats are not to be confused with those that Muslims win. Today, there are only 30 Muslims in the Lok Sabha, just 5.5 percent of its 543 seats. As per the 2011 Census, Muslims are nearly 15 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people. But although Muslims in the Lok Sabha are barely a third of their share in the population, their arc of electoral influence is far greater. In 35 seats, they number around one in three voters or more. In 38 other seats, Muslims are 21-30 percent of the electorate. If the 145 seats where they are 11-20 percent are added to this, Muslim voters have the ability to influence the outcome in a whopping 218 seats.


‘Muslims have woken up. Those who have always opposed the Muslims are now saying they can’t imagine taking power in Delhi without the support of Muslims’ Arshad Madani President, Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind
Ironically, until now, the Muslim vote has been most effective where it is around 10 percent of the electorate, big enough to sway the result in a multi-cornered contest by going all in for a single candidate, but too small to raise alarm in the BJP or its allies to trigger attempts at a counter-polarisation of non-Muslim votes. On the other hand, wherever their numbers are 20 percent and above, Muslim votes have mostly been ineffective because of a multiplicity of Muslim candidates divvying up their support, often handing victory to the BJP on a platter.

“The challenge before the Muslim community is to make sure it votes as a block for a single candidate even if multiple Muslim candidates are in the fray on a given seat,” says Yashwant Deshmukh, who has run opinion polls in national and state elections across India for two decades.

Muslims have shortlisted Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal as their key battleground states because their results would most impact who leads the next government: the Congress or the BJP. Next in importance for the Muslims are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra and Karnataka, where the more seats in the kitty of the Congress the less likely would be the BJP’s chances to form the government. Indeed, the selection of the primary battleground states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is based on their experience of coalition politics since 1998, when the BJP formed its first stable national government heading a multi-party coalition with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister. The key to the BJP’s victories in the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections lay in its wins in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These back-to-back victories jolted the Muslims, who are around 20 percent in these states’ overall population.

Chastened, the Muslims voted tactically in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, giving the BJP fewer seats and bringing the UPA to power. Although the BJP did better in 2009 in Bihar due to its alliance with Janata Dal (United), which virtually wiped out Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, it still fared poorly in Uttar Pradesh, thanks to the voting by Muslims there that gave the UPA a second term.

Indeed, the Muslim vote has dictated the last two poll cycles in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2007 Assembly polls, Muslims massed behind the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), giving it a clear majority, ending 15 years of unstable coalition politics. In 2012, Muslims deserted the BSP leader, Chief Minister Mayawati, turning to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and providing it with a majority. “Eight out of 10 Muslims voted for the SP,” says Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Adeeb from Uttar Pradesh, an independent who campaigned with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav last year, but now accuses him of turning his back on the Muslims. “They won because of the Muslims.”
That no political party can take the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh for granted is clear from their divergent patterns of voting for the Lok Sabha and the Assembly polls. Despite backing a clear-cut winner in the 2007 Assembly election, the Muslim voters showed another hand in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, dividing their allegiance roughly equally among the SP, the Congress and the BSP, depending on who was strongest to beat the BJP, which then crashed to the bottom of the heap.

Until Modi’s name suddenly leapfrogged to the headlines in March as a prime ministerial contender, political watchers were generally of the view that the failures of the UPA at the Centre and of the one-year-old SP in Uttar Pradesh would benefit the BSP at the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.


‘Muslim politics is undergoing a very progressive paradigm shift reflected at multiple levels where they are not hostage to any one political party. Now they have multiple choices’ Yogendra Yadav Psephologist
Muslims leaders say Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the eldest son of Mulayam, has failed their community, which comprises a whopping 40 million of the state’s nearly 200 million people. Dozens of incidents of sectarian violence have caused a loss of Muslim life and property across Uttar Pradesh. While the SP promised to free Muslim youths arrested earlier for their alleged roles in terror plots, no such action has yet been taken. The state government has also stonewalled calls to disclose the contents of an independent inquiry it commissioned into the disputed arrests of the youths.

“This government (of Akhilesh Yadav) is refusing to govern,” says Maulana Zulfikar, a cleric connected with India’s most influential Islamic seminary of Darul Uloom at Deoband near Muzaffarnagar city in west Uttar Pradesh. Muslims are also angry with Akhilesh as he has failed to nominate heads for statutory organisations that cater to the Muslims, such as the Minorities Commission, the Urdu Academy and the Sunni Central Waqf Board, which administers the massive properties deemed to be jointly owned by the Sunni Muslims in the state. This might drive them to the Congress party, especially if Modi is a prime ministerial candidate, says Zulfikar.

Abdul Bari, a veteran of the Jamaat-e-Islami, is candid: “Muslims are dominant in over 36 Lok Sabha constituencies in east and west Uttar Pradesh. They will explore alternatives to the SP.”

And yet, there is grudging acceptance that with Modi as a frontrunner, Muslims can’t move away from either the Congress or the SP. “It’s no longer a secret that Modi is the BJP’s PM candidate,” says Abdul Khalik, a retired bureaucrat in Lucknow. “Muslims may be unhappy with the Congress but they have no other option to vote for.” Indeed, both the Congress and the SP now believe they are in the play for Muslim votes once again, as BSP’s Mayawati has a history of tying up with the BJP.

In just two weeks in March, four public meetings focussing exclusively on the Muslims were called at Lucknow, three of them bringing out tens of thousands of Muslims on the streets. While one meeting, on 2 March, was directly called by Mulayam, he also occupied centrestage at another rally that Arshad Madani of Jamiat Ulema- e-Hind called on 17 March.

On the same day, the Congress party’s Muslim face, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who hails from Uttar Pradesh and once headed the party’s state unit, descended on Lucknow at a town hall sort of meeting with Muslims, exhorting them to break free from the SP’s grip. Earlier, on 3 March, MP Adeeb led a huge rally of Muslims jointly with the Communists to demand that Muslims arrested in terror cases be released. “Muslims in Uttar Pradesh have the capacity to make and unmake national governments,” he says. At that rally, the Muslims hooted Ashok Vajpayee, the SP candidate from Lucknow for the 2014 polls, and refused to let him speak.


‘Muslims want to come out of fear and the choice of Modi will drive them towards the Congress even though the Congress, too, has done nothing for them’, Mohammad Adeeb Rajya Sabha MP
Of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Muslims number over 20 percent of the electorate in two dozen seats in west Uttar Pradesh, including Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit, Rampur, Sambhal, Amroha, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha and Moradabad. In east Uttar Pradesh, Muslims play a decisive role in at least eight seats — Azamgarh, Bahraich, Gonda, Srawasti, Varanasi, Domariyaganj, Gonda and Balrampur.

The various Muslim outfits are now in a dialogue with each other to ensure that the experience of Azamgarh in 2009 is not repeated. At that time, a chunk of the Muslim votes, which are nearly 13 percent for that seat, was eaten away by a fledgling Muslim outfit named Ulema Council, leading to a win by the BJP. Now an influential section of the Muslims is making efforts to rally support for the SP. Says Salman Khan, a leader of the Azamgarh traders’ association: “If the BJP projects Modi as PM, it would lead to a sectarian polarisation.” Two other candidates that the Ulema Council fielded in 2009 ate away Muslim votes in Lalganj and Jaunpur.

That a fight between the Congress and the SP may actually benefit the BJP is worrying Muslims a lot in a constituency named Domariyaganj that borders Nepal. It is currently held by Congress’ Jagdambika Pal. The SP has named Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey to take him on. Troubled Muslim religious leaders have held several meetings to decide whom to support. “Modi is the most talked about issue here among the Muslims,” says local businessman Malik Mohammed Shabbir. “He has to be stopped.”

In Bahraich in central Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims are over 30 percent of the electorate, they are weighing other options as the incumbent MP, Kamal Kishore of the Congress, who was once a commando detailed to protect former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is considered to have frittered his political capital.

In Bareilly in west Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims are 34 percent, a new Muslim political outfit floated by the brother of the most influential Muslim in the region, the caretaker of a centuries’ old Sufi mausoleum, is causing trepidation among those who don’t want to see BJP strongman Santosh Gangwar recapture a constituency he lost in 2009 after five straight wins since 1991. The toss-up for the Muslims here is between the Congress and the SP, which has given the ticket to a greenhorn named Ayesha Begum, the daughter-in-law of Taukeer Raja Khan, the man behind the new Muslim political outfit.

In states other than Uttar Pradesh where the Muslim voters may be willing to go against the Congress, Modi is haemorrhaging support from the allies of the BJP. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has crafted a political miracle by fetching up Muslim votes even for the BJP because it was aligned with him in two Assembly elections. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, his JD(U) won 20 of the state’s 40 seats and the BJP 12. But his aversion to Modi’s name is now legion. Says Yogendra Yadav: “For three years, Nitish has been telling the Muslims of his state that ‘when you vote for me, you vote for me’.” Adds MP Adeeb: “Nitish knows that if he backs Modi, the Muslim voters in Bihar will quickly move en masse to Lalu.”

Indeed, Yogendra Yadav believes that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, too, would need to clarify her position on the possibility of backing the BJP in forming the next government at the Centre to her state’s 27 percent Muslim population. “She will have to do something before the Lok Sabha election, which would make her position

[RamaY]

A coalition is being built.

INC is the strategist (protection of dynasty and its core interests are the price).
Behind burkha support from Islamic and Christian organizations
Hindu non-Congress, non-BJP parties are the face
EVM manipulation is the weapon

Objective is to get 170+ seats to these groups. INC will get 100-150. Communists will get 30-40. You have UPA3.

The only counter strategy for BJP is to go full force, and target for simple majority on its own.

If they win, that is good for them as well as Bharat.

If they fail, then let India suffer another 5 years.

[abhishek_sharma]

Faking News

Wrong to criticize CBI for raids on Stalin's residences. Like Sehwag, it was just playing its natural game after DMK pulled out.

[ashkrishna]

There are indications that the BJP will score more than the congress. I suspect something like 150-130 in favor of the BJP, but that means UPA3.

As of today, UPA 3 is a distinct reality. The vote share of the BJP will increase, but this is likely to be the result of further consolidation in "safe" constituencies. It is unlikely that any party that is seen as "Hindu" will ever come to power in India again.

[member_23629]

It is unlikely that any party that is seen as "Hindu" will ever come to power in India again.

Hindus are the only race in the world who don't vote for parties which represent their interests. However, they enthusiastically vote for those who champion the interests of Muslims and Christians. This phenomenon, which goes against human nature and is seen nowhere else in the world, deserves a study by social psychologists. Aurobindo Ghosh observed this and said: "Hindus have lost the capacity to think."

Most recently, Israeli tourists have reached the same conclusion about Hindus:

Why are there so many Israeli ex-soldiers in India?

Later on I met Moshe, a fresh-off-the boat IDF soldier from the West Bank, and asked him how he saw the natives. He told me that Indians were childlike and uncomprehending, “like a flock of sheep”

[ShyamSP]

There are indications that the BJP will score more than the congress. I suspect something like 150-130 in favor of the BJP, but that means UPA3.

As of today, UPA 3 is a distinct reality. The vote share of the BJP will increase, but this is likely to be the result of further consolidation in "safe" constituencies. It is unlikely that any party that is seen as "Hindu" will ever come to power in India again.

BJP failure is its own making as it played along Congress strategies. Handling of Karnataka (Hugely important) and childish politicking and abusing of Andhras in AP will cost them dearly in the South. Advani should retire, loud-mouthed lady should be kicked out, and Yeddy should be brought back for any resurrection.

Only silver-lining for BJP is Modi and some traditional state CMs/ex-CMs. If its traditional core and MH don't vote for them like expected, tough luck.

[Chandragupta]

Hindus are the only race in the world who don't vote for parties which represent their interests. However, they enthusiastically vote for those who champion the interests of Muslims and Christians. This phenomenon, which goes against human nature and is seen nowhere else in the world, deserves a study by social psychologists. Aurobindo Ghosh observed this and said: "Hindus have lost the capacity to think."

I wonder if this behaviour stems from the urgent need for many Hindus to ride the moral high horse. There is also a lot of conflicting ideologies cluttering the Indic space - possibly misconstrued by vested interests but swallowed in whole by Hindus - like that of Ahimsa, Peace & Secularism. It almost seems that talking about one's rights is criminal & epitomizes greed - hence talking of Hindu interests automatically becomes greed & 'non accommodating'.

Just today in a debate on the corporate board, when I said (in response to some sickular fellow claiming that Akbar & Mughals were as Indian as anyone else) some Indians might regard Mughals as one of them but Mughals in their entire history never ruled India as their own country, butchered Hindus & tried to impose Arabic culture & customs ruthlessly on the population. He immediately shot back how this goes against the 'most important pillar of our nation' - 'our accommodating nature'. I asked him whether getting massacred, killed & converted should be glorified as 'accommodating nature'. Did not hear from him again. But it underlines a very important point that exists in a lot of dhimmified Hindus, they swear by secularism, equality & accommodation and see that as their moral responsibility. That is not a bad thing per se, but in front of disproportionate evidence that the other communities have never/will never reciprocate, it is akin to a flock of sheep feeding milk to wolves thinking it is their responsibility even though successive generation of those wolves have slaughtered & eaten them alive.

Truly mind boggling behaviour.

If people think that Hindus will change their line of thinking when they are reduced to minority, they are foolishly naive. In a minority status, the same Hindus will turn to Muslim/Christian customs & convert, again to just ride the moral high horse, patting themselves on the back that they were magnanimous enough to partake in the majority culture & be accommodating to the majority belief system by 'sacrificing' their ways. And they will compare themselves to Raja Harishchandra.

Vinash kale vipreet buddhi. Like somebody said earlier, I doubt an out & out pro-Hindu government will ever come to power in India, just because of the reason that the Hindus themselves will be uncomfortable with that prospect.

[member_23629]

^^^ Hindus were not like this always. Till 1857, they were fighting others tooth and nail in one of the longest struggles in the world of a native culture against blood-thirsty invaders. This accommodation business and moral high horse is strictly a post-Gandhi phenomenon. Gandhi's poison philosophy has in it seeds of destruction of the Hindu civilization. No wonder, white missionaries were his biggest friends, philosophers and guides, both in South Africa and India. The biggest success of British social engineering in India was that through Gandhi, they managed to declare non-violence and pacifism as the central, defining feature of Hindu culture. Hindus swallowed this claim hook line and sinker, especially when it was propagated by someone they saw as a saint.

[ashkrishna]

Let us continue to focus on election related issues. I didnot mean to initiate a tangential discussion on the "Hindu Mindset" or perceived servility.

[member_23629]

^^ That Hindu mindset has a direct bearing on election results. if Hindus rediscover their pre-Gandhi mindset, parties like Congress, Janata Dal and DMK won't last a day.

[ashkrishna]

@Varunkumar That is painting with a very broad brush. The BJP performs below par most of the time because of its own silliness, not because of the somnolent Hindu. I am talking about the BJP because, as of today it is the only party which has a remotely pro-hindu agenda.

Look at 2014, they can win 180-200, but they will do their very best to bring it down to 140.

[Sushupti]

@Varunkumar That is painting with a very broad brush. The BJP performs below par most of the time because of its own silliness, not because of the somnolent Hindu. I am talking about the BJP because, as of today it is the only party which has a remotely pro-hindu agenda.

Look at 2014, they can win 180-200, but they will do their very best to bring it down to 140.

Yes!. Some in BJP leadership suffers from uncontrollable sullemani urge to be seen as a Statesman demoralizing and confusing Hindus.

[ramana]

CBI has become a den of INC supporters in uniforms. So when DMK withdrew support these guys automatically executed the standard plan to raid political opponents of INC. And now the INC had to admit its was the worng thing. MMS says timing is incorrect!!!

Eventually CBI has to be purged of these minions.

[ramana]

I guess no one told CBN of the anti-Brahmin stance in our circles!!!

Naidu promises Rs 500 crore corpus fund for Brahmins

Cautions youths against taking Jagan as their role model
Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday promised that he will give priority to the Brahmin community if he returned to power in the next elections and set up corpus fund with Rs.500- crores for their development.

In an interaction with the community leaders just before the second day of his ‘Vastunna Meekosam’ Padayatra, he said that he would establish Veda Vignan Bhavans in each district headquarters for protection of Vedas and implement minimum salary to archakas (priests) as well as increasing their present salaries in all temples.

He said that the party would include in its action plan giving pensions and voluntary retirement for archakas without any age limit. Mr. Naidu said that they were planning to give free house sites, free education and health insurance to all Brahmins in society.

The TDP chief asked the Brahmin community to establish industries to provide jobs to Brahmin youth. He said that his party would give priority to Brahmins in filling nominated posts when it comes to power in the State and appealed to the Brahmin youth to take active part in politics. Mr. Challa Venkatramaiah and others gave representation to Mr. Naidu on issues pertaining to the community.

Information Technology

During padayatra, Mr. Naidu asked the youth, never to take Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as their icon in any manner. “If you follow Jagan, you will also go to jail,” he commented while addressing Telugu Nadu Students Federation meeting.

He said that his party has already announced 33 per cent posts to youth and women and it will give new direction to the young generation.

“The TDP is only the party which lived up to the expectations of the youth. We have shown the youth how Information Technology is progressing and how they can get jobs easily in IT sector. Every software engineer in the country and in the world from the State will never forget the TDP,” he added.

Crisis time

During the review meeting with Razole and P. Gannavaram constituencies on Thursday at CGTM College Grounds, the TDP chief said that the party has never faced crisis like now and it is the time for every one to fight it back to come to power.

“We should never forget that we have 30 years of history. Differences are common and adjusting with others is the need of the hour. I will not tolerate any disobedience or infighting in the party,” he warned the cadre of the two constituencies. Razole in-charge Battula Ramu, P. Gannavaram in-charge Pulaparthi Narayana Murhty spoke on this occasion.

Senior party leaders Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Gorantla Butchiah Chowdary, Maganti Muralimohan, Metla Satyanarayana, Gollapalli Suryarao, Ganni Krishna and MLAs Pendurthi Venkatesh, Chandana Ramesh and Vegulla Jogeswara Rao participated in the review.

The bigger message is that general elections are around the corner!!!

[Atri]

Why are there so many Israeli ex-soldiers in India?

They may have to leave Israel in coming times. Much though I hate the prospects of that happening, I think it might be one of the viable futures. India is the only country where they think they might be welcome (at least not unwelcome). This growing chabad houses and enclaves everywhere is reminding me of the zionist movement in 1920s and 30s - The way they systematically bought land in British Palestine to eventually carve out Israel. It might be the repeat of similar tactic.

But is GOI strong enough (or would be strong enough in next 2 decades) to avoid this from happening. OR it might be a welcome move to get their help in addressing other problems which might show up in their full potential then.

Bhaarata has to be careful. This is for sure.

[RamaY]

CBI has become a den of INC supporters in uniforms. So when DMK withdrew support these guys automatically executed the standard plan to raid political opponents of INC. And now the INC had to admit its was the worng thing. MMS says timing is incorrect!!!

Eventually CBI has to be purged of these minions.

Or some flamingo in CBI did what needed to be done, on one or the other pretext.

In our anger against termite family we cannot by sympathetic to vermin.

[Sushupti]

I guess no one told CBN of the anti-Brahmin stance in our circles!!!

Naidu promises Rs 500 crore corpus fund for Brahmins

Cautions youths against taking Jagan as their role model
Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday promised that he will give priority to the Brahmin community if he returned to power in the next elections and set up corpus fund with Rs.500- crores for their development.

In an interaction with the community leaders just before the second day of his ‘Vastunna Meekosam’ Padayatra, he said that he would establish Veda Vignan Bhavans in each district headquarters for protection of Vedas and implement minimum salary to archakas (priests) as well as increasing their present salaries in all temples.

He said that the party would include in its action plan giving pensions and voluntary retirement for archakas without any age limit. Mr. Naidu said that they were planning to give free house sites, free education and health insurance to all Brahmins in society.

The TDP chief asked the Brahmin community to establish industries to provide jobs to Brahmin youth. He said that his party would give priority to Brahmins in filling nominated posts when it comes to power in the State and appealed to the Brahmin youth to take active part in politics. Mr. Challa Venkatramaiah and others gave representation to Mr. Naidu on issues pertaining to the community.

Information Technology

During padayatra, Mr. Naidu asked the youth, never to take Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as their icon in any manner. “If you follow Jagan, you will also go to jail,” he commented while addressing Telugu Nadu Students Federation meeting.

He said that his party has already announced 33 per cent posts to youth and women and it will give new direction to the young generation.

“The TDP is only the party which lived up to the expectations of the youth. We have shown the youth how Information Technology is progressing and how they can get jobs easily in IT sector. Every software engineer in the country and in the world from the State will never forget the TDP,” he added.

Crisis time

During the review meeting with Razole and P. Gannavaram constituencies on Thursday at CGTM College Grounds, the TDP chief said that the party has never faced crisis like now and it is the time for every one to fight it back to come to power.

“We should never forget that we have 30 years of history. Differences are common and adjusting with others is the need of the hour. I will not tolerate any disobedience or infighting in the party,” he warned the cadre of the two constituencies. Razole in-charge Battula Ramu, P. Gannavaram in-charge Pulaparthi Narayana Murhty spoke on this occasion.

Senior party leaders Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Gorantla Butchiah Chowdary, Maganti Muralimohan, Metla Satyanarayana, Gollapalli Suryarao, Ganni Krishna and MLAs Pendurthi Venkatesh, Chandana Ramesh and Vegulla Jogeswara Rao participated in the review.

The bigger message is that general elections are around the corner!!!

I am really glad that Naidu is speaking in communal language . This age old practice of monetary donation to Brahmins should be resurrected all over India.

[devesh]

political campaigns in India never cease to surprise me. just when I think I've seen everything there is to see, somebody goes the extra mile...

[Hari Seldon]

^^Wow. Haven't seen such a hopeful mood on this dhaga in a while. Come friends, let us all wallow in lamentation some more...

Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa releases first list of candidates for Karnataka Assembly polls.

What's Anant Kr still doing in the BJP< somebody tell me... kick the rascal out first thing, I say.

[devesh]

the real reason for "donating to Brahmins" is to basically keep the "intellectuals" and "thinkers" accountable to society. since they receive people's money, it means they have to remain loyal to the people and their thinking can't serve enemies.

INC does the same when it doles out all those luxuries of the Left/liberal class. INC wants them to fight its enemies and remain loyal to its version of the Indian State.

Naidu wants to do something similar. he wants the priests to sing his glories. to speak for him when they do pujas/yagnas/kalyanams/etc.

[Muppalla]

I guess no one told CBN of the anti-Brahmin stance in our circles!!!

Naidu promises Rs 500 crore corpus fund for Brahmins
The bigger message is that general elections are around the corner!!!

This is a very huge change and one should not underestimate the change. This three percent votes are now really important and he is counting them. This kind of open promise no one has ever made. He is counting and surveying every vote and courting every possible one. He will create jobs is something everyone will fall for and Brahmin community does only look at that as AP's Brahmins are mostly in that mould. Things will really change permanently if he keeps his promise.

[Sushupti]

Higher phases of Secularism

[Yayavar]

so now the Brahmin is also getting doles....joins the rest of caste or other groupings I guess. Instead of cutting doles to all and sundry more is added -though minimum wages for archakas is funny. If minimum is minimum then why would one want to continue .

Election time is always 'fun' time.

[ashkrishna]

Here's some insider info. I believe it has some legitimacy, but I don't expect others to do the same. Anyway, here goes:

1. Modi will be inducted into the parliamentary committee by this weekend.
2. It is likely that he will be the sole inductee.
3. Modi will most likely contest from UP. Some whispers going around that Rajasthan is also likely.
4. The internal projections are 17-25 seats in UP. Huge communal polarization happening there at the moment. Modi in UP will send every body into absolute panic, which is not a bad thing.
5. The internal projections put the performance at 160-175.

[Hari Seldon]

^ashkrishna,

The above news was published in the hindoostan times. Indicting NM into this or that committee is one thing, he needs a free hand to act and to cut through the BS, which is the need of the hour.

I'm confident that NM alone can bring a couple of dozen more seats into play for the BJP. And yes, NM should contest from not one but 2 seats in UP - one is west UP and the other in the politically crucial and utterly do-able east UP.