India elections 2014 - BJP winning strategies

As all my other fellow Indians, I was watching the Indian elections very closely this year. I listened to various debates, rallies, roadshows, facebook forums, twitter, party pages etc. Though the exit polls clearly indicate BJP victory with pre-poll alliances, anything can happen with the election results. Most of the surveys indicate that BJP will win with majority in NDA govt.

Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister was representing BJP this time and he is the contender for the PM's post. Lets skip discussing the abilities of Modi for this position and I want to focus in this article about how he positioned himself better than the opposition infront of public eyes. The main problem with the 10yr UPA government was corruption, price rice, unemployment, scams etc. People were tired of hearing one or other scams every now and then. I want to give some credit to Anna Hazare movement that opened eyes to the public about what the UPA government is doing. Ofcourse this came towards the end of second term. But the high voter turn out in this election is partly due to this. They made people aware of the consequences they are facing as they are not coming to vote for the right leader. Modi clearly mentioned in his campaign rallies about these issues and positioned himself as the 'Change Maker' that India wants. He turned the failures of UPA government as his success strategy and people surely wanted to vote anyone but congress.

Aam Admi party also meanwhile tried to emerge as a change maker and tried to convince people that both BJP and congress are hand in hand doing corruption. But they need more time to make people buy their concept. I will discuss about this in other post. Modi is quite an orator while compared to Mr. Manmohan singh who is known as the silent PM of India. Modi cleverly coined the term 'Shehzada' to Rahul Gandhi to indirectly convey people that he is contesting because of his family heritage. He takes politics as a hobby as compared to Modi who was a ordinary tea seller. Most of the leaders in congress are due to the dynastic policy and Modi vowed to people that he wouldn't encourage dynastic politics. Congress leaders named him as 'Chai wala' but Modi cleverly used this comment with 'chai pe charcha' campaigns. In that way he showed people that he is a new face for the country with vigor and who can change the current problems India is facing due to congress and incapable governance of UPA.

Modi tried different strategies in different regions. When he was in punjab he wore the turban and tried to mix up with the people there. When he was in UP, the party came up with a slogan 'Har Har Modi, Ghar ghar modi' .. like a chant and people in that area are used to these chants. Modi came up with the 3D rallies so that he can address audiences at different places at once. In a way, he created the Modi wave across the country and put lot of efforts in his rallies. People already recognize him as a successful CM who has developed Gujarat a lot over the past few years. He also got many awards for his Gujarat model. But he is still critisized for 2002 Gujarat riots and the snoop gate scandal. Now, its the choice of people to either look for the future and forget the past mistakes or punish him for those.

Next strategy to reach out people is through internet. Modi has a blog that he maintains regularly and he is very active on twitter. He is one of the leaders of India who is liked by many youngsters. He has touched their hearts, understood their problems and hence promised them for more increased jobs. While the congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra kept remembering their ancesstors who died after serving the nation for long time. Modiji kept referring the future growth of the country. There are many new first time voters in this elections and they are not concerned with how Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi died. They are worried about the job prospects, better education system, better security for women. These things were not much discussed in the congress rallies. An effort to reach out to youth is definitely going to help Mr. Modi in these elections.

It is a known fact that in 2004 Sonia Gandhi was going to be our prime minister but due to conflicts ManMohan singh was chosen to be a PM. So, people knew why PM was silent so many years inspite of so many scams, corruption and price rise. But in 2009, not many people were interested to exercise their votes. But now the awareness has increased even to the villages. People are fed up with the dynastic politics and mute PM and they want a PM who has all the power to control and govern the country. One who does'nt need orders from the party president for each and everything. Clearly congress members in one or other way disobeyed Mr. Singh's position. It looked like no one cared for his presence. That's why they couldn't control so many scams in past few years. But is there any guarantee that BJP govt will put a break, we are not sure.. and we will have to see how Modi actually rules India.

Lastly the congress party didn't seem to be interested in these elections to go out on rallies and convince people. In a way silently they accepted their defeat. There was nothing in their manifesto that could simulate interest to public. Always remembering their ancestors won't help them to gain votes. May be in this elections they will learn a lesson to not to fool Indian public again.

I am eagerly waiting for tomorrow's result and waiting to see the exit polls becoming true.