“Enough is enough” says Dr. Manmohan Singh, after 10 years as the Indian Prime Minister. The obvious plan of leaving the door open for the crown prince of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty seems threatened.
The question now seems to be how much trouble the anti corruption newcomer Arvind Kejriwal (AAP) will give the BJP candidate Narendra Modi?
Written by: Trond Skundberg (C) 2014
66 years behind the wheels
The Nehru-Gandhi’s Indian National Congress Party has been in government more or less constantly since independence in 1947. Now the clouds are darker due to some financial setbacks and corruption scandals. The Congress party is losing terrain to the Hindu nationalist party BJP, and is actually expected to be the looser of the 2014 general election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
India’s second largest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – is in progress. The very popular Gujerat Chief minister Narendra Modi, has done some wonders for financial growth and stability in his home state over the last years – and want to go national with his Gujerati recipe -as India’s new Prime Minister. He describes himself as a common man and proud Indian.
Rahul Gandhi – 4th generation power junkie
The Nehru-Gandhi family has totally dominated Indian politics since independence. No wonder why Rahul Gandhi has prime minister ambitions: His great-grandfather Nehru was India’s first prime minister from -47 to -64, his grandmother Indira Gandhi from -66 to -77 and from -80 to -84, and his father Rajiv held the position from -84 to -89.
“Power is poison” is one of Rahul recent remarks. No reason to doubt that is the Gandhi family motto.
The mother is always right.
Rahul controversy Italian-born mother, Sonia, is the longest sitting president of the Congress party, and was ready to see her son the next PM if India 2014. The resent Congress setback seems to have made the Gandhi’s go for plan B, and not officially promote Rahul as PM candidate, to protect the Gandhi brand in case of failure. However, no doubt The Gandhi crown prince, that is now appointed to lead the Congress party campaign is their PM candidate.
Is India ready for a revolution with the Aam Aadmi Party?
AAP, the anti corruption debutant that surprisingly came in second on the December 2013 state Legislative Assembly of Delhi. Not having absolute majority, the winner BJP did not want to form Delhi government, resulting in an AAP minority government with Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister.
The Delhi success instantly gave AAP national ambitions. The party has in January 2014 had an explosive growth throughout India. The last days, hundreds of thousands signing up for membership daily. AAP is ready to compete for a considerable number of Lok Sabha seats, adding more and more high-profile candidates to the list.
“Political revolution in India has begun”– says Arvind Kejriwal, Prine Minister candidate for AAP.
The Indian parliament in a nutshell
The 2014 general election is for the lower house, the Lok Sabha. The 545 seats are filled trough direct elections – every 5 years. Each state having a number of seats relative to number of inhabitants. As examples this gives Goa only 2 seats, and Uttar Pradesh overwhelming 82 seats. The Prime Minister is selected by the new Government.
“It’s better to give AAP a chance to come to power, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes- then to support parties which have been making mistakes for the last 60 years” – says KV Sridhar, CCO Leo Burnett, India.
The main alliances
The current left-wing coalition “United Progressive Alliance” government is totally dominated by the family run Indian National Congress party. Prime Minister for 10 years has been Manmohan Singh. The opposition block, the “National Democratic Alliance”, has a vast majority of right-wing BJP seats.The newcomer AAP didn’t even exist when the 15th Loc Sabha was elected 5 years back.
“God save us from Chaotic AAP leadership and Corrupt Congress family. We must not waste our vote this time! It’s a question of India’s future” – Kiran Bedi said on Twitter last Sunday. @thekiranbedi
So, expect a thriller the next months
As I judge things right now, the chance is high that Concress loses majority and the Prime Minister to BJP. However Rahul and Sonja will be ready to grip the wheel in a seconds notice, should the wind change in their direction.
The biggest question is how eager the Indian people are for change? Enough to choose a revolution approach and experiment by giving power to a party established just a year back? The only thing that is for sure, is that this thriller of an election has just started.
Thanks for reading.
