The Hindu : Positive vote for governance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Positive vote for governance

The BJP brand of "negative politics" failed to cut ice with the Delhi electorate, writes Sujay Mehdidia.

ALTHOUGH THE battle for Delhi will be remembered for the landslide victory of the Congress that rode on the "development" plank to a second successive term, the Assembly polls were a departure from the past in many ways. For one, the parties were forced to put on the backburner issues such as regularising unauthorised colonies, illegal constructions and illegal industries. And in their place emerged new ones: a clean and green Delhi with an efficient transport system, and uninterrupted power supply and designer flyovers, all aimed at providing a better quality of life.

To be sure, the Madan Lal Khurana brand of politics found no takers against the Sheila Dikshit Government's mantra of "development and good governance".

While the Delhi BJP leadership clearly failed to feel the pulse of the people, the Chief Minister was successful in projecting herself not only as the face of the new generation but also as a victim of the BJP-led Central Government which created `obstacles' in her efforts to do something worthwhile for the city.

Her low profile persistence touched a chord in the Delhiites who saw a well-meaning reformist in Ms. Dikshit, one who meant business and worked for the betterment of the city. Her development-oriented agenda caught the imagination of the people. The women and youth saw a hope in her positive agenda and voted overwhelmingly for the Congress.

The Assembly elections also saw the marginalisation of some senior Delhi Congress leaders, including the Pradesh Congress Committee president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, and the former Union Minister, Jagdish Tytler.

For the BJP and its leader, Madan Lal Khurana, the outcome has been nothing short of a nightmare. Seen as a vote against the BJP-led Centre, these polls could well mark the end of Mr. Khurana's reign in Delhi. Even in his Sadar Lok Sabha constituency, he fared poorly. The party lost in four of the five Assembly seats there. Mr. Khurana's brand of "negative politics" failed to cut ice with the electorate.

The BJP leadership could well use this opportunity to groom a new leader in Delhi. The party's politics in Delhi has centred around the troika of Mr. Khurana, V.K. Malhotra and Kedar Nath Sahani for too long. There is already talk of the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Vijay Goel, taking over the reins.

In fact, the outcome should also ring alarm bells for the seven sitting BJP Members of Parliament from Delhi. The message of the electorate is loud and clear, perform or perish.

The Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, Mr. Goel and the Poorvanchal leader and MP from East Delhi, Lal Bihari Tiwari, have reasons to worry as the BJP was decimated in their bastions.

The party won only seven of the 21 seats in Outer Delhi, four of the 20 seats in East Delhi and none in Chandni Chowk. The only saving grace was the Karol Bagh parliamentary seat where the party won three out of the five seats, though only by slender margins. This certainly does not augur well for the BJP and it may mean that the party will face the anti-incumbency factor in the Lok Sabha polls. This is evident from the fact that the BJP has done poorly in the Government employees' dominated constituencies, a fact even Mr. Malhotra conceded. "We will have to do something about the issues relating to Government employees before the Lok Sabha polls," he said.

The middle class backlash is being attributed to the policies of the BJP-led Government at the Centre, especially the declining incentives to save, continued stagnation in the income tax exemption limit and tax rate slabs and, of course, the fallout of the problems with the Unit-64 Scheme, which deprived large sections of their life savings.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

After the vote

Caste calculus gone awry

Positive vote for governance

A silent transformation

To advance or not to advance general election

Bumpy roads overturn Digvijay