Money & Cadres Redundant:

May 14/2011: Election process in 5 states is over. Not only psephologists, the results teach all of us a lot. On one hand, from the South Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in the East Assam and West Bengal have proven that an outfit like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no political relevance in huge tracts of this country. Except five seats in the Assam legislature this so called national party has very limited significance.

On the other hand, The Congress must be fuddled. No one can be barred from dreaming. After the recent exposes of major corruption charges against the UPA-2, the Congress was pinning high hopes on Kerala and West Bengal results. It was expecting that Mamata’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) would capture power but riding on Congress shoulders. Now we can see that allying with Congress had damaged TMC. Without such an ally, Mamata has succeeded in acquiring enough seats on her own steam. Instead of donating seats to the Congress, had the TMC fought on those seats then they would have got even more numbers. West Bengal winning figures indicate the TMC did not notch up any extra votes because of its ally. Rather, TMC votes have gone to Sonia’s party in the 42 seats that Congress could garner.

It is evident, if one dissects politically, that the Left front had eaten up its core strength. It had turned into a foundation-less palace. So much so that exiting Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Left strongman Asim Dasgupta lost their own seats. Many would recollect a similar fate befalling Orissa’s former CM Janaki Ballav Patnaik who had to quit power after getting personally defeated. This is a clear lesson that long term serving leaders and political parties get rotten from within very easily. Some may ridicule such an opinion. Yet it can be easily said that seeing the Bengal results of 2011 one is reminded about the epic Mahabharat and the Biswa Rupa exhibited by Lord Sri Krsna in it. Like the destruction of the Kauravs was preordained, so also the unseating of the Left was a foregone conclusion for the common man of Bengal. Maybe, instead of Mamata had the TMC been led by Sudip Bandopadhyay, the results could easily have been the same. That implies that after 34 years of being in power, the CPM led Left Front had distanced itself from the masses in that state. It had no clue about its own situation. All it needed was a gentle push to topple over.

In Kerala, the Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) has won but what a win! By bagging just a few more seats than the Left Democratic Front (LDF), it has shown that the situation is grim for it. If pested of allies, Congress alone has bagged only 38 seats while comparatively CPM has got 45 seats. This shows that the so called major ‘national’ party, the Congress, needs crutches to stand in all these states where elections were held recently, except in Assam. Without allies, Congress would be nowhere.

Interestingly, the return of the Congress for a third consecutive term in Assam does not show a Sonia-Rahul charisma working there. Some other factors have led to this victory which needs proper analysis. According to knowledgeable sources, infiltrators from Bangladesh have been regularly crossing the borders into India at Assam. The state government there, it seems, has been actively collaborating in this activity. Intention is to garner votes. Tarun Gogoi has been spearheading the drive to regularize these infiltrators and get them voter’s id cards. Therefore, it is said, these voters are siding with the Congress. That in turn has helped Gogoi in the past elections too.

In Tamil Nadu, the usual changing of sides has taken place once again. Karunanidhi and family had left no opportunity to be opportunistic. In their blind desire to grab everything that came their way, they had damaged the DMK’s image considerably. Indians, especially poll analysts from outside Tamil Nadu had dared to think that the unlimited coffers of the DMK would bring it back to power as the average voter of that state was considered to be unaware of the doings of the Family.

In Tamil Nadu, the average voters proved that money has failed to buy them out. In West Bengal, the common voters have shown that no cadres could possibly alter their thought processes. Thus implying that both, money and workers’ strength will not work when once people at large have decided to do something that they think is befitting and correct for themselves.