Polls - Karnataka '08

[acharya]

Karnataka Results - Vindhyas Breached Irreversibly


The votes have been counted in Assembly elections 2008 and Karnataka has spoken with one clear message.

Offstumped had in the run up to this election had framed what this election ought to be about. The message from Karnataka through Verdict 2008 is a clear and unambiguous repudiation of the politics of greed epitomised by Deve Gowda, the Darth Vader of Karnataka Politics.

With the BJP inching towards a majority the breach in the Vindhyas is now complete and irreversible. Karnataka is not just a buffer for the BJP against incumbency cycles to the North but is also a beach-head for a southern expansion strategy.

The outcome in Karnataka is a slap in the face for Brand Sonia and the more recent Brand Rahul. Manmohan Singh’s Communal Socialism symbolized by communal budgeting and a sell-out to select farmers in the debt waiver have come a cropper. Sonia Gandhi now has the dubious distinction of having ensured Congress loss in every single major election. From old timers like Arjun Singh to fresh blood like Sachin Pilot it is time someone called the bluff on the myth of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. It can now safely be said that brand Nehru-Gandhi has lost its pan-Indian relevance and is on its way to becoming a relic of the Congress’ inglorious past.

While the BJP prepares to celebrate this victory it must remember the other message in the run up to this election. Power is not an entitlement. It is a responsibility. There is no substitute to the mantra of “Minimum Government Maximum Governance”. Aspirations are high in Urban Karnataka and expectations are even highers in rural Karnataka. From issues ranging from autonomy to Bangalore to rural rejuvenation spelled out by Mr. Advani in his CII speech some time back, Mr. Yeddyurappa will have his task cut out.

Can he rise up to the challenge and deliver ?

Offstumped will be watching …

--
http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008...d-irreversibly/


finally bjp is heading for a simple majority…
wins:
cong-27,bjp-63,jds-8,oth-02

heading for 120 seats…
great


Won 102. Lead in 11 more. Game over.

won 106. Leading in 6.
BJP MLA’s are meeting in Bangalore tomorrow to elect Yediyurappa as CM in presence of Arun Jaitley
BJP surged ahead of congress in voteshare.

Times now

BJP 110
Cong 77
JD(S) 29
Oth 9



BJP win is beginning of end for UPA: Modi

FROM BAD TO WORSE: Narendra Modi stated the condition of the Congress had gone from bad to worse.

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the BJP victory in Karnataka would mark the beginning of the end for the Congress-led UPA.

He also described as “a big achievement” the maiden victory the BJP has scored in southern India on its own strength.

“The Karnataka results are in keeping with the expectations of the BJP,” Modi told stated. “This is the first time the BJP has got a clear mandate on its own in the southern state.”

Modi, who campaigned extensively in Karnataka, pointed out that the BJP had earlier won in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. “Now we are winning in Karnataka.”

The Chief Minister said the condition of the Congress had “gone from bad to worse” with each election in recent years that it has lost.

Asked why the BJP won in Karnataka, he said the UPA had failed to fulfil the expectations of the people.

He added that voters in Karnataka had also punished “the politics of betrayal” — a reference to the JD(S) decision not to share power with his party despite its promise to do so.

He warned that the Congress would find it difficult to inject life into the multi-party UPA ahead of the coming Lok Sabha elections.

“The Congress will fail to build the confidence in the UPA that they will be able to work and win elections. The disintegration of the UPA has begun.”


How Cong is losing more than elections (Rediff)

If the Congress and BJP were brands, the latter has better recall and recognition at the electoral mall. The voter knows what he is buying.

For weeks and months, the BJP leadership, be it in Delhi or Bangalore, have been aggressively and abrasively drumming and drilling the same three things into the skulls of voters on television. That B S Yediyurappa was their chosen man for chief minister. That B S Yediyurappa as finance minister delivered two ’superb’ and ‘excellent’ budgets. That the party, if given just ‘”one chance’, would bring paradise on earth.

Last week, when Prannoy Roy asked Yediyurappa some complex formulation from Delhi, the chief minister-in-waiting ignored it, adjusted his spectacles, looked down, and began parotting the same three things.

‘Mr Yediyurappa, please stop reading from your notes,’ Roy said.

It would have invited sniggers in the right kind of drawing rooms, of course, but clearly voters in the age of news television do not mind that.

At every conceivable opportunity during the election campaign, Sushma Swaraj talked of price rise affecting the common man in her Karol Bagh Kannada — ‘akki, bele, yenne, tarkari… (rice, lentils, oil, vegetables…) — in the same order. It gets boring beyond a point, but who is to argue that it is not effective?

Aha, the age of stump speeches and sound-bytes finally dawning in desi politics or what? We prefer a coarser country version to both our daru and to our soundbytes than the avg yamriki would, thanQ.

In contrast, the Congress leaders have been a disaster on live television. Not one of its leaders, in Delhi or Bangalore, has had the clarity of thought or the fire in the belly to take on the stuck records of the Sangh Parivar. They hem and haw, on the one hand and on the other. They are stuck for words in explaining their USP. They cannot forcefully say why the party hadn’t named a chief ministerial candidate. They have no convincing explanation on Afzal Guru or Taslima Nasreen; terrorism or minority appeasement.

The poor things…. heads will roll at Cong HQ as the high command searches around desperately for a scapegoat. SM Krishna is a good bet, he’s old, infirm and retiring anyway. Best to pin on him all blame and shame and shower flowers on the rajmata-yuvraj teflon duo….