The Great Indian Political battle – Part 1

The lines are being  drawn.

The battle conches blown.

The flags are hoisted.

Camps made.

Partners gained , partners ditched.

Welcome to the world’s biggest democratic battlefield and this is Mr. R covering the political battle for you.

In another 6 weeks time or so , we shall know the new political equations that would lead India for the next couple of years and shape its future. There are lots at stake for the nation and 750 million voters would cast their ballots to determine which direction India would move in the coming years.

So first lets see who is fighting whom ?

We have three camps in this big Kurushetra. When I meant Kurushetra , its just a point of reference for the maha battle ahead and not on the ideology of Good Vs Evil. In this Kurushetra ‘ 09 , we have good and evil mixed in all the camps and fighting it out.

1. NDA ( National Democratic Front ) lead by BJP ( Bharatiya Janata Party )

2. UPA ( United Progressive Alliance ) steered by Congress.

3. Third Front ( last heard they are scouting for a new name for the alliance) authored by a motley of non – congress , non – BJP parties.

BJP and Congress have already got their share of heart breaks and humiliation ahead of the poll , meted out by their own allies. Well , in this era of coalition government , Its the regional kings who dictates the emperor parties !!!

• BJD ( BIju Janata Dal ) dropped its 11 year old coalition partner , BJP like hot potato. It came as a rude shock for BJP and hopelessly spoiling its calculation in Orissa number game .
• RJD chief Lalu Prasad and LJP boss Ram Vilas Paswan announcing 25:12:3 seat-sharing formula for the UPA in Lok Sabha polls in Bihar , leaving Congress , the national party , with only 3 seats to contest in Bihar. The congress and its workers are fuming . I wonder what one seat less would make a great deal , after all they contested only 4 seats in the last lok shaba poll ! So why this hue and cry ?
• and then we have Shiv sena and NCP ( Nationalist Congress Party ) who tease their respective alliance partners BJP and Congress , by having talks and gossips of stitching together a new alliance in Maharashtra. To add salt to the wound , Shivsena openly supports the prime ministerial ambition of NCP’s Sharad Pawar.
• So powerful are the regional parties , that both the national parties have become junior parties in states like West bengal , Uttar pradesh , Bihar etc.

Then we have the non-congress , non-BJP parties collectively making the  Third front !

It is a kichidi front in a nutshell ! Parties who are forced to join together out of compulsion , parties who cannot align with UPA and NDA coz of the rivals sitting in those camps , parties driven by the ambition of the party chiefs to manipulate the most possible post election verdict of hung parliament to their potent advantage !

Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral , Who headed the short lived  United front in 1997 , says about this third front as “ commitment to ambition, not ideology and may not last even till the elections ”  He is right in his words too . The coalition is driven by ambition , egos of the individual party chiefs ( Mayawati , Jayalalita , Chandrababu naidu , Sitaram yechury  ) and may collapse anytime when the leaders see opportunities elsewhere in the post poll scenario.

Poll dates :

The first phase of election starts on April 16th , 2009 and the counting will be on 16th May , 2009.

For complete information on poll dates and schedules check here 

This election is personally more interesting for me for two reasons : 

This would be the first time I would be casting my vote . Its not that am just eligible for vote but I was careless enough all this years to waste my  right to vote . This time am not going to exercise my right.  Second , for the first time am going to cover the election through my blog ,

Vote Kero ! Let the spirit of democracy prevail !