Why India voted for Congress

125

As a news anchor who lives in a television studio, and whose reporting days are rapidly becoming a fading memory, my one connection with the 'real' world is a morning walkers' group in the neighbourhood park. Located in an upper middle class colony of the national capital, the gathering includes senior citizens, service sector professionals and independent businessmen. Their viewpoints on most issues - be it POTA, uniform civil code, black money in Swiss banks, or even Ram Mandir - are similar to a BJP manifesto. Yet, a majority of them voted for Sheila Dikshit in last year's Delhi assembly elections and Dr Manmohan Singh as prime minister this year. In their voting preferences lies the key to explaining perhaps the only nationwide trend of election 2009: the dominance of the Congress/UPA over the BJP/NDA across urban India. As the comprehensive National Election Study done by....

Hazards of being a political journalist

53

One of the professional hazards of being a political journalist is that you are expected to predict exact election outcomes . It's meant to be your USP, the basis for your dinner invite. Yet, over the last few weeks, as one has been repeatedly asked to predict election 2009, the response has been to simply and honestly say, "I don't know." Never before has an Indian election left so many people so confused about the final verdict. Perhaps, the ghosts of 2004 still haunt all of us and have made us a little cautious. More accurately, it is a reflection of the reality than an Indian general election is no longer one election, but possibly 543 elections being played out at the same time, with almost every constituency having its own unique set of issues and individuals to deal with. Take Mumbai for instance. If in....

Priyanka, the natural politician

139

The discovery of Priyanka Gandhi began in 1999 with your humble columnist. We were filming a day in the life of a politician, and almost stumbled on Priyanka, partly because the 'real' politician in the family, Sonia Gandhi, was still inaccessible. With some support from the party's then UP in charge, Sushil Kumar Shinde, we managed to convince Priyanka to give us time. Frankly, we needn't have worried. Priyanka was a naturally charismatic , made for television individual. She hadn't given an interview till then, but you wouldn't have guessed it as she took us on a whirlwind campaign tour of Amethi, and spoke about her family, her politics and more. She was good looking, youthful, totally bilingual, wore ethnic chic cotton saris, had a distinct resemblance to Indira and was perfectly at ease with the camera. We even filmed her having lunch....