Statewide and National runup to 2014 General elections

ShyamSP · Post by **ShyamSP** » 26 Jan 2013 02:17

Muppalla wrote:
sunnyP wrote:Does anyone think Rajnath Singh (along with the newly returned Kalyan Singh) can help resurrect the BJP in UP?

One would think they need at least 25-30 seats there if they are to succeed nationally.
Let us hope again and again that Rajnath can do something. Here are his achievements regarding UP:

(1) While announcing Kalyan as CM candidate, in the midst of campaing Kalyan did a direct attack on Rajnath for not having a freehand to select the candidates.
(2) He did not allow Kalyan to field his son because he himself is not allowing his son rise
(3) He is very famous in making extreme anti-Mullah videos and he is alleged to be behind Varun's famous speeches. Did work well in Western UP to an extent and helped in massive polarization efforts of INC.
(5) He lost his CM ship, then he lost all the UP elections under his leadership

Another very unimportant tid bits about Rajnath:
(1) He has dubious distinction(allegation) him as one who started selling the MP/MLA seats to highest bidders in BJP
(2) BJP has one official OFBJP and there is a cell in Delhi BJP office to deal with the matters of Overseas admirers. He deliberately avoids the official group but he goes to certain rebel groups when he visits US.

Added later:
The only reason why Kalyan left BJP second time was Rajnath Singh. It will be interesting to see his return and his emotional speech of draping his death body in BJP's flag with Rajnath's return to top.

Good to know some issues is relationship between two Singhs. Right role for Kalyan Singh is inevitable if they want to get UP back.

Despite that Rajnath Singh is good for BJP as alternative guy that was considered Venkaiah Naidu might not have been in fray due to his poor health. I always thought with Nitin Gadkari would face no dirt on it but opponents and its media were able to throw some mud at his white shirt.

With Rajnath Singh it is new win in old bottle so Congress media chicks in NDTV/CNNIBN might not be interested in him. Heat will be taken off of organization and will be focused on Star Campaigner. If Rajnath Singh can pull together the GV leaders in next elections it is good for BJP, after all except in GV he did very well under his tenure in the past.

ShyamSP · Post by **ShyamSP** » 26 Jan 2013 02:27

Muppalla wrote:BJP may still be a single largest party. But it will be important to see if Yeddi's party becomes king maker with 15 to 20 seats.

If they split their votebanks forget about being king and kingmakers, they will be fighting for who will be opposition leader.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 03:04

ShyamSP wrote:With Rajnath Singh it is new win in old bottle so Congress media chicks in NDTV/CNNIBN might not be interested in him. Heat will be taken off of organization and will be focused on Star Campaigner. If Rajnath Singh can pull together the GV leaders in next elections it is good for BJP, after all except in GV he did very well under his tenure in the past.

I hope so but the following type of articles show a type of paid articles. Congress worried about Rajnath is a stretch. When you like your opposition, you will be critical of them (Anna, Kejriwal) a lot to show to the public that you really respect your opposition. When you really dislike your opposition when they does not listen to you, you will IT raid them and put cases etc.(Gadkari, Eswarappa, Yeddi) and when you hate and see that there is problem you will jail them (Jagan, Reddy bros and now Chautalas)

Why is the Congress worried about Rajnath Singh? Did the new BJP president upset the RSS's apple cart?

The grand old party was counting on Nitin Gadkari's second term as president to help them keep the BJP on the defensive (considering the corruption charges levelled against the Gadkari-owned Purti company, it wouldn't have been too difficult a task).

Unfortunately for the Congress, the man they are now facing is the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Rajnath Singh.

Singh, who was the president of the BJP from 2005 or 2009 as well, is expected to make Rahul Gandhi's task of wooing India'a most important electoral state in the forthcoming national elections even more difficult. Uttar Pradesh elects 80 Lok Sabha members.

Congress mangers fear that Rajnath Singh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi -- who has made it a point to congratulate the new BJP president -- will pool their resources to make Uttar Pradesh their new battleground against the Congress, and the Gandhis.

That is the new spin of paid media

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 26 Jan 2013 06:14

Instead of Rajnath, Varun Gandhi should have been elevated

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 06:30

A bigger role for Gujarat chief minister NarendraModi appears next on BJP's agenda, with party president Rajnath Singh hinting that the main opposition may take a call on the matter soon. "We will talk to Modi and other party leaders on the issue and decide," Singh said on Friday in an exclusive interview to ET

Kakkaji · Post by **Kakkaji** » 26 Jan 2013 07:09

The rightful currency of power, in an all-India party, should be the number of Lok Sabha seats one can bring to the party.

The D4, all together, cannot bring 10 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP. Nor can any of them claim to any great achievements in governance or administration. On what basis do they get a final say on the party's decisions? Let them organize a rally in Delhi and let us see how many party cadres they can gather in support.

LKA, despite his organizational achievements of the past, today needs NaMo to ensure his own election to the Lok Sabha from a safe seat in Gujarat.

The people responsible for the electoral destruction of the BJP in UP were Rajnath Singh + Kalraj Mishra + Lalji Tandon (who was indulged by ABV). MM Joshi is no great uniter either, and he is also way past his sell-by date like LKA.

Yashwant Sinha can barely win his own seat in Hazaribagh. Shatrughan Sinha no longer can bring crowds to rallies like he used to.

Mahesh Jethmalani, and his father Ram Jethmalani, cannot win a Lok Sabha seat from Mumbai today unless there is a great nationwide wave in favour of the BJP.

It is time that a new generation of vote getters and proven administrators in the BJP, like NaMo, SS Chauhan, Parrikar, Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje etc assert themselves and throw out the deadwood at the top of BJP.

JMT

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 08:12

Kakkaji wrote:It is time that a new generation of vote getters and proven administrators in the BJP, like NaMo, SS Chauhan, Parrikar, Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje etc assert themselves and throw out the deadwood at the top of BJP.

JMT

The reality is that the above don't compete to out do each other and even if they do that would actually be a healthy one. Instead, the fight and competition is between and by those who just cannot bring votes and also those maharathis inside RSS.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 26 Jan 2013 08:32

Muppalla wrote: You mentioned Pallam Raju as some family lickers. Why to make him as some separate entity in a list of South? Does it matter anything between south, north, east or west. A congressman is a congressman and will always be family lickers. But while being lickers, compare this fellow Pallam Raju to UP/Bihar's similar lickers. Take case of equivalent folks such as the one Dwivedi who is currently the spokes person of INC from UP or compare the same Pallam Raju to someone like Rahul's best friends from UP who are all part of UP politics. That will give apples to apples comparison.

What is the difference? I don't know.

Pallam Raju's father or grand father is a freedom fighter and they have good clout in E.Godavari district of AP. Just visit the remote areas of E.Godavari district and see the amount of development inspite of politicians being family lickers. Again now I bet you to compare to even Amethi with E. Godavari district of AP and difference of the development and jobs creation in those two areas will tell you what I am trying to explain.

Hardly surprising. People from that generation were freedom fighters. And they were found in all states--not just Andhra.

Similarly take the case of even congress CMs of states like Maharashtra, Gujarat to that congress CM of UP. Both these states are predominantly ruled by congress party until 90s. In fact the CMs of all congress rules states look same aaya ram gaya rams. Inside that stupidity see the differentials in terms development in those states.

Ah..now I see your point...You are saying that there is some fundamental flaw in the character of leaders from UP/Bihar which is the cause of their relative poverty. I don't buy that. Surely they have made some mistakes...that should not lead to some grand theory about the behavior pattern of any state.

Gujarat is again no great agricultural land not any big mineral land. It is just blessed with leadership and entrepreneurship.

I am not going to believe that any group is "blessed"

with any specific property. Cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad made the right decision to develop their cities into IT hubs. How many people were responsible for that decision? A few. I cannot imagine that 10 million people sat down and decided to bring IT to those cities. Once IT companies start coming to your city, industrial development starts automatically...and even less skilled people can live a comfortable life (e.g., A taxi driver in Mumbai earns more than a taxi driver in Patna). Note that people from all parts of the country provide the human resources for the IT boom. So the gains from IT cannot be seen as a contribution of a small number of states. Of course, they deserve the credit for starting the IT boom.

Now coming to Nitish, compare and contrast with Naveen Patnaik (another unnecessary secular), CBN, Jayalalitha or even jokers like MuKa. Did anyone of them do as much centre based neta giri of banning other state leaders (like Modi) in campaigning etc?

I just don't understand...why is this such a big deal? And how is Karunanidhi better than Nitish Kumar? We have three options

1. NDA govt with Modi as PM
2. NDA govt with Jaitley/Sushma Swaraj/Advani as PM
3. UPA govt

Can we agree that (2) is better than (3)? Karunanidhi supports (3) and Nitish supports (2). And still Nitish gets a worse rating that MuKa?

You (and many others) really need to move beyond this Modi-fixation. Not that Modi is a bad person, but this love affair is seriously affecting your rationality. We can all agree that Modi should be PM. We must also agree that:

People who support (1) are making a better decision than people who support (2).
People who support (2) are making a better decision than people who support (3).

Now you can have a rating of different states.

Nitish has a fundamental responsibility to bring his state on par with other states in development.

And he is doing exactly that. You should read newspapers more often.

But his focus is about Delhi.

And why is that a bad thing? Why shouldn't people aspire to play a bigger role? It is ironic that people are talking about primaries but don't want others to focus on Delhi. How many candidates do you want in a primary? One?

Same story with Mulayam, Laloo as well.

I don't think Laloo wants to be the PM. He is happy to clean the shoes of Sonia Gandhi just like politicians from other states.

Nitish is not doing anything or any vision to make Bihar better than ...

Read newspapers more often. Really.

But do they even lobby some simple things to get to their states? Financial packages etc. Meanwhile the crooks of Karnataka were able to sell to UPA that congress will return to KA if we give a huge financial package to North KA and they succeeded too.

I am not a big fan of that kind of "lobbying". Allocation of resources should be done fairly and without any consideration to politics. I would be very happy if Nitish is not involved in such unethical practices.

Now you see the contrast of UP and Bihar politicians from all political parties.

No, I don't see the difference.

without making an illusionary North Vs South

You (and others) were talking about Ganga valley. If you target a certain region, people will hold up a mirror for other regions.

What I alluded was this mentality of politicos from these two states is because of an underlying concept that somehow UP/Bihar are some core states and rest are pheriphery .

How did you find their "mentality"? UP and Bihar don't seem to have a disproportionate share in the cabinet. If you look at the numbers, it appears that the states on the periphery are over-represented in the cabinet. Why is it so? Do they want to dominate others? What is their mentality? You should explain hard numbers first before offering your psycho-analysis.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 26 Jan 2013 08:45

vijayk wrote:Who is better at appeasement politics: North or South?

If we agree that UPA is known for its appeasement-based politics, then it should be easy to find the states which vote for UPA.

Look at the facts:

Nitish went to Paki land to lick their bottoms to get Muslim votes.

Laloo, Mulyam, DogVijay, Shinde garbage would provide cover Paki terrorists if they want to nuke India and then blame it on RSS. These bloody scums were riboon cutting conspiracy books on how RSS did 26/11.

Digvijay Singh is from MP and that state has voted for BJP for a while. And Shinde is not really from the North or the Ganga valley. It would be great if you can get your facts straight.

The appeasement politicians of CON party and other sickular parties from UP, Bihar, MP

Did you forget that Shinde and P Chidambaram are not from UP, Bihar and MP?

You don't see Naidu or Jayalalitha or Naveen Patnaik going to these lows.

But we have seen Karunanidhi and Mani Shankar Aiyar stooping to those lows. Selective amnesia is a sign of very high levels of honesty.

muraliravi · Post by **muraliravi** » 26 Jan 2013 09:12

Abhishek,

The south and west have always been more developed than up or bihar way before IT boom and stuff. Next IT plays only a small role, the southern and western states also have good manufacturing hubs

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 26 Jan 2013 09:24

I don't think IT plays a small role.

Yes, the south and west have been more developed than others before the IT boom. I don't know the reason behind it. Maybe UP/Bihar relied too much on agriculture, and that was not a great strategy.

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 26 Jan 2013 09:38

abhishek_sharma wrote:I don't think IT plays a small role.

Yes, the south and west have been more developed than others before the IT boom. I don't know the reason behind it. Maybe UP/Bihar relied too much on agriculture, and that was not a great strategy.

Also, don't forget the negative impact on the economy of cow belt due to Mandal&Kamandal. Benefits of opening of economy by PVN were mostly to West and South due to less political instability in these parts.

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 26 Jan 2013 12:57

Shettar govt is not under threat, says governor Bhardwaj

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 02020.aspx

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Jan 2013 13:06

the old bihar and UP simply had too many people for the arable land available and not enough respectable local manufacturing beyond the bare bones stuff like carpets, metalwork etc. hence the exodus all over N/S/E india then and even S.India now. climate is harsh, summers are brutal, if monsoon does not provide good rains there was little to no irrigation comparable to what punjab/haryana had. big landlords had little interest in farm productivity.

there are biharis in assam who moved there a 100 yrs ago(hard to call them biharis now except they still speak hindi and fluent assamese as well). and likewise must be such emigres in delhi and mumbai as well.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 26 Jan 2013 14:36

There was virtually no governance in UP, Bihar and Bengal. At least UP and Bihar had the good fortune of changing Govts.
Anyway, a North-South fight is OT for this thread.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 26 Jan 2013 14:59

Interestingly the GV and the east appear to be lost to the INC. Doubt the INC can return in a big way even in Asom going fwd. INC's hold on the south appears weakening but not nearly enough, sadly. Its hold on MH is frustrating but may well come undone in this decade (or so I hope).

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 26 Jan 2013 16:33

^Only if the MNS and SS come together and not split votes.. in the 2009 LS elections in Mumbai, BJP/SS + MNS votes were > INC votes in 6 out of 7 seats, yet all 7 seats are held by the Congress.. they need to put their issues aside, which may be an issue in UP and Bihar - Raj is seen as anti-North Indian, and the BJP must tread carefully in the event of any tie-up with RT.

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 26 Jan 2013 17:26

North vs South is mostly a debate of reactions, a poison ivy planted to exploit basic instincts. If the North vs South is ignored then there is only a very fast and smooth marg to understand what can work best for India (Plan -A) and what should be the fallback (Plan -B). Not having these in place will enable the Kongis and their various B teams.

Right now the situation is that Kongis are going down but Sangh is not rising, at least not as fast and as surely. The BJP being reticient should be the main worry and here it is why, per Kanchan Gupta on Headlines today TV:
[When ABV lost his 13 day government he had zero allies. Later on he went on to head the biggest every coalition till that time.]
This is as close to the quote as I can get without the text being available to me.

What Kanchan Gupta really said is that - The change was that BJP had more seats (~20-22 since 96) and about 1-1.5 years worth of negotiations which attracted more allies.

Today BJP has that much time and is ~70 short. The BJP's own standing is the crux and if all of BJP minus Modi managed 115 then they have to understand that a change in plans is required.

Headlines today is showing how the whole of current NDA is gaining only 40 more seats even though UPA is loosing more then 60. The leak to 'Others' is actually ok but the gain of only 40 is serious because the BJP's own gains need to be about 60 then other NDA constituents also need to increase their tally instead of loosing to Kongi B teams.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 26 Jan 2013 17:35

Minus UP, WB, TN, AP and KL there are about 300 seats. The BJP needs to get two-thirds in these seats. Then if they can get allies in TN (30), AP(15) and OR (10), they can get close to 271. Sweeping the 300 is IMO the key. Also after the burst in 90s the Sangh/BJP has not made/attempted to make headway in TN, UP, WB, AP, KL has stagnated in AS and OR and gone downhill in UP. The 155 seats Headlines Today gives BJP is not sufficient.

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 26 Jan 2013 17:43

Supratik wrote:The 155 seats Headlines Today gives BJP is not sufficient.

I am of the view that that if Modi is given a clear chance today then there is reasonable time to catch up and even go beyond 180. UP may not be helpful to the desired degree but to if BJP fails to put up a fight here then they will loose the old roots and go the Kongi way in UP. How about Rajasthan? Gehlot is very good kya?

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Jan 2013 19:32

Modi as PM candidate will get BJP 272+

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 20:03

abhishek_sharma wrote:I don't think IT plays a small role.

Yes, the south and west have been more developed than others before the IT boom. I don't know the reason behind it. Maybe UP/Bihar relied too much on agriculture, and that was not a great strategy.

Bhai saab, I did not even bring this North Vs South. I cannot afford to do such things even for my selfish stuff because about 50% of my friends circle is actually UP+Bihar, another 30% from Punjab and rest from rest of India. I understand my comparison about Bihar growth and Nitish to some stinking swamps was hurtful though I still think that is correct. Nothing personal and we can agree to disagree and move on.

Now about the highlighted statement, I totally disagree with this. Agriculture is not a bad industry to not grow. Just because of Agriculture, entire Punjab, Haryana, coastal AP manufactured wealth and now can boast of multiple multi billionaires. Even if Eastern UP and current Bihar which has a lot of water invested in purely agriculture they wouldn't be like what they are. For most part of India's self rule the politicos from these states called the shots in India. Had they spent even 5% (rest then can spend on netagiri, India's future core nonsense and secularism) of their energy towards developing their backyards while doing the regular netagiri and loot, they would have contributed something if not up to potential.

In the above statement you are saying "I don't know the reason behind it". All my posts in the past two pages (that looked like some blame stuff and N Vs S) is answer to this. In spite of having all the reasons (resources, clout, political dominations) these areas did not grow and they are continuously in the same pattern even now and that is a fact..

If you really want to survey ( the way I did), take a train called Alleppy to Bokoro express and this train actually travels through the tribal lands of AP, Orissa and then Jharkand (Bihar). Travel by sleeper class and not First class/AC. Eat out at railway stations while travelling. This is not a main line Train for most part and will give you difference of development in the backward regions of many states that this train travels through. I travelled by this train to meet my brother several time between 1991 and 1997. My brother travelled until 1999 before he moved to Pune and later to Hyd. The gap of difference only increased between stated but it did not even stay the same.

Forget about all this stuff. Simple question - Why is many GV politicos inside BJP and also NDA are anti-Modi? If you take away Govindacharya (South), Anant Kumar (KA) and Shanta Kumar (HP) about 75% maharathis are Brahmin/Kayasth/Thakurs from UP and Bihar. Secularism is not the issue because these are inside RSS and BJP. Can someone explain the logic? If pressed further they bring name of Chauhan from MP as alternative but they have no logical answer to why they oppose Modi.

If there is some logical (not spin) answer to above, I will agree to have committed a sin in the past two pages.

My reasoning to above is what some one called it as truck load of crap

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 26 Jan 2013 20:13

^^ I disagree. But I guess more than enough discussion has taken place on this topic. Let us get back to regular programming. I am sorry if I have offended anyone.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Jan 2013 20:29

^+1 Muppala garu.

For a resurgent Bharat, the resurgence of GV valley Hindus in true sense (not some castiest/clannish feudal mentality) is a must.

Perhaps it is time to take out the leadership responsibility from that group, so they can focus on their backyard. Given the pan-India leadership responsibility they are ignore their homes.

On Agri-sector, I collected my thoughts in Alternative-business scenarios thread. If identified and handled like SMB (Rs 5L -10L annual revenue per unit with <10 employees) this sector can take Bharat into the lead position.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 20:54

ravi_g wrote:
Supratik wrote:The 155 seats Headlines Today gives BJP is not sufficient.
I am of the view that that if Modi is given a clear chance today then there is reasonable time to catch up and even go beyond 180. UP may not be helpful to the desired degree but to if BJP fails to put up a fight here then they will loose the old roots and go the Kongi way in UP. How about Rajasthan? Gehlot is very good kya?

Rajasthan will be a landslide for BJP if they blindly give the ownership to Vasundara Raje. Instead they are still squabbling and finding one pretext or other. It is another Modi Vs rest type story going on in Rajasthan. The extreme clever from RSS is the reason behind this mess.

D4 is actually no threat to BJP. The threat to NDA returning is solely RSS+VHP.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 21:02

ravi_g wrote:North vs South is mostly a debate of reactions, a poison ivy planted to exploit basic instincts. If the North vs South is ignored then there is only a very fast and smooth marg to understand what can work best for India (Plan -A) and what should be the fallback (Plan -B). Not having these in place will enable the Kongis and their various B teams.

Right now the situation is that Kongis are going down but Sangh is not rising, at least not as fast and as surely. The BJP being reticient should be the main worry and here it is why, per Kanchan Gupta on Headlines today TV:
[When ABV lost his 13 day government he had zero allies. Later on he went on to head the biggest every coalition till that time.]
This is as close to the quote as I can get without the text being available to me.

What Kanchan Gupta really said is that - The change was that BJP had more seats (~20-22 since 96) and about 1-1.5 years worth of negotiations which attracted more allies.

Today BJP has that much time and is ~70 short. The BJP's own standing is the crux and if all of BJP minus Modi managed 115 then they have to understand that a change in plans is required.

Headlines today is showing how the whole of current NDA is gaining only 40 more seats even though UPA is loosing more then 60. The leak to 'Others' is actually ok but the gain of only 40 is serious because the BJP's own gains need to be about 60 then other NDA constituents also need to increase their tally instead of loosing to Kongi B teams.

ravi ji, if Congress loses AP and Maha and Rajasthan, that will automatically make a beeline of coalition partners towards BJP. It will not take 1 to 1.5 years of negotiation. While BJP gets 155 to 175, if INC gets 100 to 120 then also NDA will form the government.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Jan 2013 21:07

^ thank you Muppala garu.

The most important thing is how many seats BJP wins not how many NDA gets. Once BJP crosses 200 that will make BJP most secular.

That should be the focus of RNS. Find 300 constituencies where BJP got significant vote share and start working on them.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 21:19

Sushupti wrote:
Shettar govt is not under threat, says governor Bhardwaj

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 02020.aspx

I don't know what's cooking here in this kichiri.

My guess:
Yeddi has been blackmailed and forced to create a party so that INC thought he will divide the Lingayats. If Shettar is the new darling of Lingayats and Yeddi comes as a cropper that will negate all that INC is doing. Hence then need to ensure that Yeddi grows a bit. (now Yeddi joins Chiranjeevi, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal types). If Yeddi cannot make this government fall his clout goes down and down.

One thing is clear from all Surveys, Congress in KA is nowhere near to getting a simple majority.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 26 Jan 2013 21:20

RamaY wrote:^ thank you Muppala garu.

The most important thing is how many seats BJP wins not how many NDA gets. Once BJP crosses 200 that will make BJP most secular.

That should be the focus of RNS. Find 300 constituencies where BJP got significant vote share and start working on them.

BJP crossing 200 even with Modi is really difficult. Their wave time potential is about 180 to 185. Right now the game of INC is to at the least get to 140 and make BJP not cross 155.

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 27 Jan 2013 02:08

bjp’s dilemma

The BJP wants to go into the Assembly elections after announcing the names of all Chief Ministers probables in States where elections are scheduled. But there is no consensus on the CM candidates for Delhi and Rajasthan.

However, the party is all set to announce the names of the chief ministerial candidates in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh well in advance. Since the BJP doesn’t have much presence in the North-eastern States, the party is unlikely to focus on Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

The party has announced its first chief ministerial candidate in Karnataka — Jagdish Shettar. This move has caught Lingayat leader and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa on the backfoot. Then came the announcement of Chhattisgarh candidate Raman Singh to end the opposition from within the party.

Chhattisgarh incharge and general secretary JP Nadda has silenced all those who opposed Raman’s name. These leaders wanted that a tribal leader should be projected as Chief Minsterial candidate. But Nadda made it very clear that BJP will fight in the leadership of Raman Singh.

The BJP will also announce the name of Shivraj Singh Chauhan for Madhya Pradesh soon. But it is not able to find a consensus candidates for Delhi and Rajasthan. In the last elections, the BJP fought under the leadership of Vijay Kumar Malhotra in Delhi and faced defeat. The party is unable to decide from which community the chief ministerial candidate should be — Punjabi, Bania or a person from outside.

A similar situation prevails in Rajasthan. Vasundhra Raje is the most powerful leader there. Her supporters are demanding that she be made State president and the election fought under her leadership. But some leaders, who have RSS support, are opposed to her.

all’s fair in politics

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has only repeated what Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had said six years back to the then US ambassador to India Timothy J Romer. WikiLeaks had claimed that in 2007, Romer had sent a cable to Washington in which details of the luncheon meet between him and Rahul were mentioned. According to WikiLeaks, Rahul had confided to Romer that Hindu terrorism was the new danger and that it was giving rise to religious tension and political controversy. Also that the threat to India was from the saffron surge.

At that time, Rahul had just been appointed the Congress’ general secretary. And now, six years later, when Rahul has been promoted to being the vice president of the party, the Home Minister has claimed that he had sufficient evidence of Hindu terror. Shinde has said that the BJP and the RSS were running camps of Hindu terrorism.

Sources say that then Home Minister P Chidambaram had talked of saffron terrorism. And that Chibambaram and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh had worked in this direction. Hence, it is not surprising that Digvijay Singh has also raised a finger by questioning the role played by the BJP and the RSS.

It is said that it was votebank politics that Rahul played and talked of Hindu terrorism. Later, Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh joined in and now Shinde and Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath have done the same.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edit ... -helm.html

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 27 Jan 2013 02:21

Pawar vists Gadkari, flays Congress's policies

NAGPUR: NCP supremo and union agriculture minister's gestures during a visit to Nagpur can leave the political analysts guessing. Pawar who expressed his disagreement with Congress, the NCP's coalition partner, also paid a visit to Nitin Gadkari backed Agrovision expo in the city. As he spent half an hour with Gadkari who last week quit the BJP president's post, Pawar told newspersons that an event on the lines of Agrovision would be organized in Delhi too.

Later during a meeting organized by Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED), a local voluntary organization, Pawar said that certain populist policies of the UPA will be hampering the country's work culture. He reiterated his stance against the higher compensation proposed in the land acquisition bill and sops under National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme. Pawar also batted for Adani Group, the Gujarat-based industrial group which is coming up with a power plant at Tiroda in Gondia district, the electoral constituency of Praful Patel, a senior NCP leader.

Pawar said Adani Power had planned to supply electricity at Rs 2.25 a unit to the Maharashtra government, but the environmentalists sabotaged the project, claiming that it would hamper the tiger habitat. "My colleague Jairam Ramesh (then MOEF minister) visited the site and ultimately the captive coal mine on the basis of which the company had planned to keep its cost at Rs 2.25 a unit for next 25 years went haywire, Today the company's quarterly losses are at Rs 850 crore, it has to import coal costly coal," said Pawar

He praised Modi for cutting across party lines for taking up development projects.
http://sp.m.timesofindia.com//articleshow/18200019.cms

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 27 Jan 2013 05:35

One of our members had said yeddi is not as hot as everyone thinks. May be IB reported the same to INC and hence the governor backtracked.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 27 Jan 2013 05:39

^^Agreed. The sangh under Mohan bhagwat has been a nonpositive influence on the BJP's growth prospects. Blatantfactionalism (e.g. in Rajasthan) is a case in the point.

Time a system of democratic primaries is instituted to select state and national level leaders.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 27 Jan 2013 06:53

^^^
RSS is cooking factions in Rajasthan. Otherwise it is one leader. Read Swapan Da article after Modi's win.

Vashishtha · Post by **Vashishtha** » 27 Jan 2013 13:10

http://www.dailypioneer.com/component/k ... a-way.html

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 27 Jan 2013 14:22

Cross posting from NM vs. DieNasty thread

Just in and I wonder how Sushupti ji is not on the beat:

NM met RNS, had lunch and in NM's own words - 2014 ke baare mein bahut vistaar se baatchit hui (extensive discussions on 2014). Modi also sought guidance on what he should do in Gujarat.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 27 Jan 2013 19:46

Hari Seldon wrote:^^Agreed. The sangh under Mohan bhagwat has been a nonpositive influence on the BJP's growth prospects. Blatantfactionalism (e.g. in Rajasthan) is a case in the point.

Time a system of democratic primaries is instituted to select state and national level leaders.

The whole polity needs primaries Hariji....

We need a mechanism to bring people with leadership skills to the foreground instead of just dynasties.

jamwal · Post by **jamwal** » 27 Jan 2013 20:50

How Google is preparing Manipur for polls

By using everything from face-recognition software to satellite mapping, Manipur shows the way in using technology to battle electoral fraud.

The 21,000-odd people who got themselves enrolled in multiple electoral rolls in Manipur had definitely not taken into account the power of Google Picasa. This is the open source software that sarkari staff, in a rare display of tech-savviness , have been using to detect fake voters over the last few months. In fact, the use of Picasa's face-recognition feature may help Manipur become the only state in the country to have a 100% correct electoral roll before the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Manipur's lead is being followed by neighbouring Nagaland and distant Jammu & Kashmir. The Election Commission of India (ECI), too, has decided to develop its own face-recognition software to detect and delete anomalies in electoral rolls across the country.

The use of technology started with state Assembly elections exactly a year ago. The state's joint chief electoral officer Naorem Praveen Singh said it was decided to take individual photographs of all voters when they came to cast their votes so that later these could be matched with the electoral rolls. The third polling officer in each booth was given a Lemon D226 mobile phone. "With our limited resources, we could not afford digital cameras. This particular model was chosen because it comes cheap at about Rs 1,200 a set, and the batteries last for 72 hours in switch-on mode. This was a crucial factor since many polling stations were located in areas without electricity," said Singh. On polling day, of the nearly 13.9 lakh voters who cast their votes, photos of more than 12.03 lakh (over 85%) were taken. Once the polling personnel returned to their respective district headquarters, the images from their mobile phones were downloaded, polling station-wise , in separate folders.

"We then started the process of matching the photos of the voters who cast their votes with the photos that appeared on the electoral rolls. But this was too cumbersome a process and was taking ages. After a few months, our staff in the technical wing came up with the idea of using Google Picasa as a face-recognition software. So we downloaded this free software and even customised it before starting the process of matching the photos of the voters with those appearing on the rolls from September last year. Over the past four months, 21,000 people whose names appeared in more than one electoral roll of a polling station were detected and their names struck off the rolls," said an officer of the state election department's technical wing.

Singh is sure that the state's electoral rolls will be 100% error free by the time the Lok Sabha polls come around. "There won't be a single duplicate or bogus voter by next year," he said. As for the 3.56 lakh-odd voters who did not exercise their franchise in last year's Assembly polls, they're all being tracked down and their photos are being taken once again. As per census figures, the female to male ratio in Manipur is 987:1000 but according to the last year's rolls, it stood at 1043:1000, thus indicating the presence of a large number of bogus women voters in the rolls. The ongoing correction of the rolls has brought down this ratio to 1029:1000 at present and the election department is determined to bring it down to the actual census ratio.

Similarly, the elector to population ratio which was abnormally high in last year's rolls at 82:100 has been brought down to 62:100.

But this isn't the only innovation undertaken by Manipur's election officers. Before the polls, all polling stations, polling areas and assembly constituencies were mapped extensively using Google Earth and with help from the Manipur Remote Sensing & Applications Center (MRSAC ). "Each polling station's coordinates , road connectivity, proximity to police stations and security forces' posts and surrounding terrain were mapped and on that basis, we deployed security forces to the polling stations. This precluded militant attacks on polling stations that used to be a regular feature in the past," said Singh. Also, the CEO's office has commissioned the MRSAC to extensively map the entire state so as to enumerate the exact number of households on the ground. Every household will be assigned individual numbers and enumerators on the ground will survey them to get the number of voters in each for comparison with the draft electoral rolls. "We'll be able to detect and delete bogus households from the rolls in this manner," said Singh.

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 27 Jan 2013 22:40

has anyone thought that perhaps the overt and clearly projected "factionalism" is a deliberate tactic?
now is not the time to anoint "unified" leaders and paint a target on their back.
creating all these "factions" and putting up paper tigers as "pillars" is a very good strategy. it distracts the INC-System; and leaves them confused as to who to attack and who to "nurture"...

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 27 Jan 2013 23:00

devesh wrote:has anyone thought that perhaps the overt and clearly projected "factionalism" is a deliberate tactic?
now is not the time to anoint "unified" leaders and paint a target on their back.
creating all these "factions" and putting up paper tigers as "pillars" is a very good strategy. it distracts the INC-System; and leaves them confused as to who to attack and who to "nurture"...

What if they go for a quick snap poll? They did this in 1989 and have won 191 seats which led to VP Singh government.