UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh after winning the elections

Defying all expectations and poll predictions, Congress and its allies performed much better than expectations getting a thumping mandate for the next five years, from nearly 57% [wiki] of electorates who voted. Manmohan Singh will be the next prime minister of the country in the 15th Lok Sabha. He is only the second PM after Pt. Jawahar Nehru to be elected to a second term in PMO after being in centre for full five years.

UPA (United Progressive Alliance) won about 260 seats (up by a whopping 79 seats when compared to 2004), just marginally short of the magic figure of 272. Congress itself secured 206 (+60) seats, a feat that it was not able to repeat since 1991. NDA failed miserably, managing only 157 seats, down by 14 seats as compared to 2004. BJP won mere 116 seats (-22).

Mamta Banerjee’s Trinmool Congress (TC) won 19 seats (2 in 2004), Jayalalitha’s AIADMK won 9 seats (0 last time), Left parties won only 20 seats (53 last time), Laloo’s RJD could manage only 4 seats against the 24 which they won in 2004. Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP was unable to open its account (they had 4 Mp’s in Lok Sabha last year).

Big guns who were able to secure their seats include:

Priya Dutt (Mumbai North-Central, Congress), Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram, Congress), Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit, BJP), LK Advani (Gandhinagar, BJP), Rajnath Singh (Ghaziabad, BJP), Congress’s chairperson Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareily, Congress), Rahul Gandhi (Amethi, Congress), Laloo Prasad Yadav (Saran, RJD, he lost from Patliputra though), ex PM H.D. Deve Gowda (Hassan, Janta Dal- secular), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer, Congress), P Chidambaram (Sivaganga, Congress, he lost initially and asked for a recount in which he won), Maneka Gandhi (Aaonla, BJP, she also lost in the first counting but was declared the winner after a recount), Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar, BJP), Shatrughan Sinha (Patna Sahib, BJP), Chiranjeevi (Tirupati, PRP, he lost from Palacole though), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri, SP), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna, Congress), Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha, BJP), Jaswant Singh (Darjeeling, BJP), Jayaprada (Rampur, SP), Murli Manohar Joshi (Varanasi, BJP), Mohd Azharuddin (Muradabad, Congress)

The list of notable heavy weights who lost is as follows:

Laloo Prasad yadav (Patliputra,RJD, he won from Saran though), Ram Vilas Paswan (Hajipur, LJP), Shekhar Suman (Patna Sahib, Congress), Chiranjeevi (Palacole, PRP, he won from Tirupati though), Renuka Chaudhary (Khammam, Congress), Ram Naik (Mumbai North, BJP), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur, BJP), Chetan Chauhan (East Delhi, BJP), Mani Shankar Aiyar (Mayiladuthuraj,) Nafisa Ali (Lucknow, SP), Margaret Alva (Uttara kannada, Congress).

From the state point of view, the biggest surprise for me was UP. Congress won 21 seats in the state, an increase of over 50 % as compared to last time’s 9! Even Congress leaders dint anticipate this resounding success in the important state of UP. BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) won only 20 seats, an improvement of just one seat from 2004. This broke the dream of the “sarvajan samaj” leader Mayawati’s hope of becoming the king maker and hopefully the next PM of the country. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party suffered huge loss of 12 seats as they could only win on 23 constituencies.

Apart from UP, West Bengal sent major tremors down the political lanes. While Left parties suffered significant setback, winning only 11 (CPI+CPM) seats as compared to 29 (CPI+CPM) last time in a state which is considered their strong hold, Mamta’s Trinmool Congress emerged strong winning 19 seats, up by 18 in 2004.

In Tamil Nadu, AIADMK won 9 seats (+9) while DMK consolidated by 2 seats to take their tally to 18.

In Maharashtra, Congress added 4 seats as compared to 2004 to finish at 17, while BJP lost 4 seats and their final tally in the state was just 9!
Bihar was one state which brought wide smiles on face of NDA. BJP won 12 (+7) while JD-U won 20 (+14). Though other major parties in state, RJD (4,-18) and LJP (0,-4) were completely wiped out.

BJP also took blows in MP (16,-9), Rajasthan (4,-17). Congress improved by significant numbers in Kerala (13,+13), MP (12,+8), Rajasthan (20,+16)

Few things are very clear from the way India has voted:

• People of India have voted for stability. They want a government which can run and take strong decisions for five years (hence the mandate in favor of Congress and allies and against blakmailer parties like Left, BSP,SP etc. People have denied totally regional parties like RJD and are now turning towards national parties for better governance. Congress can work without the constant fear of its allies withdrawing support and we can expect a stronger coalition government and they can formulate their key policies with freedom and without much hassles.
• Advani, Modi are not the faces people of India want to see as their PM. People of India do not want their leaders or parties to be working on secular lines. Hate speeches by <sarcasm> honorable </sarcasm> Mr. Varun Gandhi dont seem to work outside Pilibhit either. People want real issues and not just issues which are made up just for the sake of it. BJP had much greater support when honorable Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji was in picture. It is not hard to believe that BJP needs a leader with a clean image like him to be able to challenge Congress in next elections in 2014. As Advani has already offered to quit, is Modi the natural choice for the next (dare I say) PM in waiting? If yes, god help BJP, because unless Congress does something terribly terribly wrong this time, I am afraid people are not ready to see and accept Mr Narendra Modi as the PM of the country.
• Rahul Gandhi is a force to reckon with. This election the battle was between youthful exuberance of 38 year old Rahul gandhi and the experience of 81 year old Lal Krishna Advani, and we know who prevailed. The fact that Congress won on more than 60 seats out of 126 (source: Aaj Tak) where Rahul Gandhi travelled shows the effect this young power house of Congress has on the common man of India. BJP needs a younger and dynamic face in their party to woo the younger voters. And no, Varun Gandhi is not a wise choice. They need someone who is more likable. Rahul Gandhi can also be the Congress’s PM candidate for the next elections.
• Start power does not guarantee you sucess, well almost. Defeats of many prominent personalities like Chetan Chauhan, Hans Raj Hans, Raj Babbar, Vinod Khanna, Jaspal Rana, Chiranjeevi, Shekhar Suman is a proof of that.

I am thankful for a few things.

• We can expect a stable and stronger government,
• People like Mayawati can only dream of becoming the PM of this great country.
• BJP must have learnt that India does not want to be divided on basis of religion. We (okay, most of us) do not ratify politics of hate. If you want to win, you need to bring better faces than Advani and Modi, someone like Sh AB Vajpayee.
• Small parties like RJD, BSP, SP, Left who thrive on the lack of a consensus amongst the Indian voters and hence get what they wanted just because they have the seats that the coalition government needs, need to re-think their agendas. People of India have clearly shown them the door and made it clear their is no room for parties who create instability in the government.
• I am happy that opportunistic politicians like Ram Vilas Paswan lost. Man, that guy is present in every party just because he has those few seats which the alliances need to form the government. Not surprisingly, he gets a portfolio too. And I am sure, he does not allign with the alliance likely to form government with just the motive of “actively” participating in the government and hence be able to serve the people of the country better.

Congress will be able to form the government with the support of just a few more small parties and independents, leaving no room for SP, BSP and the likes.

Thanks to the Election Commission Of India for conducting free and fair elections. Managing elections for over a month and that too in a country of over 700 million electorates is a tough job.

I hope to see a better working government this time. Winning the elections is just the beginning, the real work starts now, fulfilling the expectations and faith people have shown in you.

Good luck to Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Download the complete list of winning candidates of 2009 General Elections from
here. (PDF, 53 kb,from ECI website)

Disclaimer: Though I have taken utmost care in giving the correct stats, some errors still might have crept in. If you come across any, please notify me.

Data collected from various sources including IBNLive, image from BBC

(I have written on this Mangalore incident on my other blog. In case you dont follow it, you can find the post here: Women attacked in a pub in Mangalore)

I asked the question of the poll in this post to about 11 people in my class.
8 out of 11 opted for option number 3 while 1 person each selected option number 2,4, and 6. Of the 5 girls,1 of them chose 2 option as her voice while rest went with # 3. Out of 6 guys, 3 selected option # 3 while 1 each went for 4 and 6. The one which selected option 6 had this to say “WTF”. (WTF!?)

I also asked them to write their views on the issue if they wanted to. Here is what a few of them had to say:

1. Nikhila (female):

Westernisation to some extent is fine. The main use of clothes is to cover yourself,in the name of westernisation people dress sensually. They think that wearing small clothes (tiny infact) is modern and fashion. Obviously they give a wrong idea.People can say they can wear whatever they wish. But she is not the one who sees herself in that dress.So we have to dress in a way that we dont pose any wrong idea to others.

2. Anonymous (Male):

3rd option because everyone has his/her way and right to live. No one can change anyone by force. One can be changed himself only and not by any other. So to do this kind of deed to anyone is a hinious crime. So I opt 3rd, because it depends on person whether she/he should follow her culture or be much westernised as said one can be changed by himself.

3. Anonymous (Female)

These kind of offenses, who ever do these crimes should be hanged till death. The people who can not respect life and others, they dont have a right to live.

Delhi went to legislative elections today. This was my first time to cast a vote and as I have keen interest in politics, I was naturally more than excited to cast my vote. But I was confused to whom I should give my vote to. In my opinion,none of the parties are real worthy of my vote. All are corrupt from head to toe, can care no less about their constituencies and its people and what not. On top of that most of them do not even have a clear image, many have criminal records against their name.

So what do we do? Can we only chose lesser of the two evil? Is that the only option left for us? Not voting or pressing two buttons on the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) was not an option as that would have meant wastage of my vote. Then when my friend told me about this post on his blog.

According to NIC website there is a provison given to electors in case they dissapprove the current system.

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his

electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters

in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as

required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his

vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in

Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb

impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Read the full “THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961″ here on the NIC website.

So I finally voted. Nope,im no more confused about what i did,and am very clear about what I will do in future elections (until there is a radical change).

I voted for no one!

Even after I read about this thing on Sai’s blog, I was not kind of sure about its authenticity as he mentioned there,he recieved it as an mail forward and email forwards are mostly very un-reliable.But when another person mentioned about this when I was discussing about this on a forum,I thought I will try it out (though i would have given it a try anyways).

So I got up early in the morning and was there at the  polling station even before the polling started. And delimitation of constituency has caused a few confusions here and there. And as always finding you name in the voter list is sometimes tricky,specially so if you are a fist time voter. I searched hard for my name but was unable to find it ( was wishing  I could press Ctrl + F so that i can find my name). Anyways after much work, I was able to find my name.

I went inside the polling booth, got that election ink on my right index finger, got my serial number and when I was allowed to proceed towards the EVM, I said, I do not want to cast my vote,what is the procedure to go about it. There were 4 lady officials on duty and 4 other people sitting there. They were like “Come again”! I told them again, there is a provison where by you can vote that you do not want to cast your vote in favour of any of the candidate. They were  like what do you mean by that? Clearly they dint knew about this. I think they dint get what I wanted to say because  they kept saying if you do not wanted to vote, why have you come here? Why have you got that ink mark on your finger and all that. You should have told us beforehand. I told them i was not wasting my vote. They said you should have not come at all, or press two buttons on the EVM. I told them that would be  equivalent to not voting at all, though they were not convinced . Again one lady said you should not have come,  then another one interrupted her by saying that “no what he is saying is that he want to vote but he does not want to vote to these candidates.Ask him to fill up a form and write a remark against his name that he “refused to vote”. They thought I was just a frustrated warm blooded youth who is just fed up with politics and so they even asked me if I was even aware of who all the candidates are contesting in the elections or i am here to just sound like a clever attention hungry fox. I told them the whole list and told I dont want to vote for them because I dont think they are worthy. When they found i can not be convinced ,then they called in their senior officer to see me. He said,”Son why do you want to create a mess for us? Running a country is a tough job,its not as easy as it looks to you,give your vote to someone (beta kyo hamara kaam bada raha hai,desh itti aasani se nahi chalta ,kisi ko bhi vote dede). But I said no,there is a provison and I do not want to give vote to anyone. He said then you will have to sit and wait here for 1 hour as he will ask higher authorities, I said no problem,I can wait. There was chaos all around that polling booth, and I feel sorry for those who got delayed because of me(I could here a few whining sounds of people standing behind me)

After much hustle, they finally put a remark against my name,got it signed by me @ two places,and the presiding officers present there also signed it. They also asked me to give an undertaking that I do not want to give my vote to anyone. Though they mentioned that I can be called again if there is any problem with my vote.

So this is just another option you have when you go to elect your leaders from next time. I could not get this out to more people as i was myself not sure about this,but now, after i have casted my vote in favour of “no one”, I will try to reach out to maximum people.

Thanks Sai and Udit.

Spread the word.

Update: From whatever I can gather from different sources, there is no provision for cancellation and then re-elections.  49-o only mentions the right to “not vote”. Though a few lawyers whom I asked about this said even this does not exist! I have the link and I will show it to them.I do not know how can they say that there is no such thing. Whom did I vote then? I am damn confused. What did they did to my vote?

Update 2: There have been instances before me who have casted their vote in favour of 49-o. Like this one.

Update 3: I have tried contacting a few “responsible” newspapers and news channels. But few of the mails are not getting delivered, probably because they are already flooded with feedback on Mumbai attacks.
So if anybody can provide me with direct contact details of some of their known personnels in any media organisation, I shall be grateful.
If you have any helpful contact,you can directly mail me at: mayanks[dot]098[at]gmail[dot]com

Update 4: Finally, another blogger, Danish spoke to EC office. All in all, it seems my vote was valid and I did actually vote for “no vote”. Thats a relief.

Here is an excerpt from Danish’s blog:

I called up Election Commissioner’s Office and spoke with Mr. C.P. Sharma who is PPS to Mr. Navin Chawla (Election Commissioner). Mr Sharma told me that this rule is valid, anyone can exercise it. One has to go to the polling booth, get their name marked, get their finger marked and infrom the Polling officer on duty about the decision of not voting. The Polling Officer might ask you to give a written undertaking stating the same. Through this process, the vote would be registered as ‘no-vote’ and will be counted under the same head at the time of final counting.

Read more on Danish’s blog

Conclusion is, that it does exist but there is noprovision of cancellation or re-election.

So it is valid, however, you see it as a valid way for opposing the system or not, is still upto you. For me, it is a way to protest as people and our politicians will come to know about the unrest even if their is no cancellation. Sometime, they are bound to take notice,may be out of fear,but they surely will.

Well the year 2007 was a dream for India.India really shined in 2007.The country prospered and achieved many wonders.Lets have a look at some of the highlights and achievements of 2007 from Indian perspective.

1. Political:

a) The civilian nuclear deal: with US has completed almost all the formalities.After the American house passed the bill and Left parties at home gave (after much tussle though) gave N.O.C to government to go ahead and complete talks with nuclear watchdog I.A.E.A.

b) Mrs. Pratibha Patil was elected the president of the world’s biggest democracy. Her appointment (however it happened) was significant because of the fact that she is the first lady to head the country.

2. Defence and science & technology:

a) India test fires successfully Agni-III,its nuclear capable surface-to-surface missile which can strike a target in the range of about
3000 Km with a payload of about 1.5 tonnes.

b) GSLV-Fo4 rocket developed indigenously by ISRO successfully placed into orbit the INSAT-4CR satellite making India one of the few countries which have capability of placing their satellites in geo-synchronous orbits.
Also, PSLV-CA launched an Italian satellite AGILE and PSLV-C launched CARTOSAT.

3. Business:

a) Indian economy continues on full throttle. Growth rate expected for the year is between 8-8.5%.

b) Indian Rupee is stronger and made India a $1 trillion economy,making it the 12th country in the world to achieve this feat.

c) The BSE-Sensex touched newer levels.It reached 20k mark in 2007.

d) It was L.N. Mittal(N.R.I. in 2006 and this year it was Vijay Mallya who put India on global business map with major acquisitions.
He bought Scotch maker Whyte & Mackay for £595 million. Later he sealed the deal with Deccan aviation. And the biggie of the year, he
became the co-owner of a F-1 team, Force India (previously Spyker ).

4. Social:

a) This was a break-through year which saw unprecedented sentences in even high profile cases.Indian judiciary often criticized
for corruption passed some significant judgments.
Accused in high profile cases like Priyadarshini Muttoo, Uphaar tragedy were convicted. Jessica Lall case was re-opened following a mass
movement,a la-RDB.

b) Thanks to massive Indian participation, Taj Mahal, was re-elected as one of the seven wonders of the modern era.

5. Sports:

a) Starting with the lesser expected and thus more valuable, India beat Syria and won Nehru cup. It goes down as one of the most
memorable wins of Indian football team.

b) After a long time,we saw Indian hockey like it used to be. India won Asia cup beating Korea comprehensively. Whole tournament Indians
played like champs.

c) Vishwanathan Anand became (once again) the world champion.

d) Plans were announced to make a F-1 track in India by 2010.

e) Last but not the least, the cricket crazy nation got something to chear about when Indian cricket team won the inaugural Twenty-20
World Cup.

Having listed the positives we also had some events which are not on the similar side. Incidents like Nandigram, Kiran Bedi’s pre-mature (voluntary) retirement , political tussle between UPA and Left parties over N-deal brought bad name to the country.

But we have 2008 ahead of us.We have many things to look forward to.Biggest of hem all, India’s 1st mission to moon Chandrayaan-I to be launched in 2008. Also we hope to hear more news of India’s flying economy.