Rural Voters in India Select Congress Party

123jump.com Staff
16 May, 2009
New York City

Rural voters in India again delivered a verdict that surprised most political parties. The clear vote of confidence in the Congress led coalition will give India a stable government for the next five years. Rural voters endorsed a jobs program and demanded greater recognition in national policies.

[R]10:30 PM Mumbai – Rural voters in India again delivered a verdict that surprised most political parties. The clear vote of confidence in the Congress led coalition will give India a stable government for the next five years. Rural voters endorsed jobs program and demanded greater recognition in national policies.[/R]

The fifteenth Lok Sabha election points to a decisive victory to the ruling party Indian National Congress, endorses the continuation of Nehru family control and the success of job programs initiated by Prime Minister Singh.

Of the 321 results announced so far, Congress has won 144 seats, BJP has garnered 93 seats and other regional parties have won 42 seats.

There are 8,070 candidates from 375 parties contesting the election for 543 seats and nearly 1,000 are facing criminal charges or probes.

Organizing election in India is a complex task with a population of more than one billion. The Election Commission staff and security forces of eight million organized the intricate process over five weeks with 700 million eligible voters. Despite the record heat, nearly 60% of voters participated in the election, a higher turnout than the 2004 election.

The margin of victory for the Congress party surprised analysts and many in Congress. The prospect of a hung Parliament and fractured coalitions had worried financial markets and middle class for days.

One who wins Uttar Pradesh rules India was repeated again and the importance of the state was not lost to the emerging leadership of Congress. Congress delivered its best performance in the last two decades.

Congress party led coalition United Progressive Alliance is likely to garner 260 seats and BJP led National Democratic Alliance is expected to win 160 seats. To form a government, either coalition needs support of at least 270 members and must be formed by June 2.

What Helped Congress?

Congress with its substantial lead will be able to form a government that will be stable and without interference from regional parties. The last five years have been marred by the persistent demands by the Communist Party in the ruling coalition to scale back economic reforms and ask for political favors that voters perceive corrupt.

Congress’ focus on the poor paid off in this election. Jobs programs in rural areas that provide daily wages to more than 40 million people, forgiving of farm loans to millions and the government paying higher prices for farm crops was very popular with rural voters.

It is the success of rural works program that titled the common man’s perception in favor of Congress.

The communist members left the coalition after a sharp disagreement with Congress on the nuclear deal with the U.S. and hoped that in this election they will be able to increase their win and find a greater voice in the next coalition. However the party lost sizable support after leaders forcibly grabbed land from farmers in West Bengal for an automobile plant in the name of progress.

Financial markets are expected to surge more than 6% on Monday as investors look for speedier reforms and continuance of pro business and growth policies.

Singh – Gandhi Partnership

Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president and widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi stressed repeatedly during campaigns that if the party wins, Manmohan Singh will continue as Prime minister. Voters feared that after the election she will force her son Rahul to his office.

Today in a joint televised conference with Mr. Singh, Sonia Gandhi reiterated that promise and asked Prime Minister to lead for the second term.

The unassuming and soft spoken Singh has steered the Indian economy in the last five years with one of the fastest economic expansions in the history of India. Mr. Singh is likely to be the third incumbent prime minister to return to power who completed full previous term.

Jawaharlal Nehru and her daughter Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi were the only two other prime ministers to complete their first terms to return to power, of the thirteen other prime ministers since independence in 1947.

Rahul Gandhi and her sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned assiduously in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state and once the Congress’ stronghold.

The Rahul Gandhi’s energetic campaign of three to four rallies a day for a month increased visibility among young voters and brought many of them to voting booths for the first time. On the contrary, the BJP leadership is ageing and its religion based agenda appear to be out of touch with younger voters who are seeking better living conditions.

The younger voters gravitated to youthful image of Rahul Gandhi and dynastic connection to the Nehru family. Those hopes of better governance in the past had been dashed and skeptical voters have been swift in returning opposition parties to power.

But this time, the combination of clean image and experience of Prime Minister Singh who is 76 and the young and energetic appearance of Gandhi of 38 years of age was not lost on voters.

Voters Respond to Jobs Program

Voters in India may be poor, may not read and write but they do understand politics and where their future lies. The analysts and political parties have again and again underestimated the aspirations of rural voters.

In India, it is the poor who go to vote, big businesses buy the influence and set the economic policies of government and middle class hopes that they will be lucky to maintain their living standards.

That social and political order is still intact and the middle class is still not large enough across the nation to matter at the policy level. The national policies will still be governed by the needs of the poor and big businesses and hopes of several independent candidates from middle class were dashed this time too. Most failed to win elections.

However, it is the apparent success of jobs program in rural areas and government’s willingness to support farmers in the times of crisis changed the political dynamics that BJP led coalition failed to grasp.

The Bhartiya Janata Party fought this election on a sole platform of national security after the recent Mumbai terrorist attack sponsored by Pakistani military sympathizers that did not galvanize voters beyond Mumbai. BJP stressed stronger military and severing ties with Pakistan but failed to wean the party away from its hard line on religion based message.

Surprisingly, the party that built the foundation for the current economic boom failed to remind that to voters and leverage in this elections. The BJP policies in the early years of this decade fostered the development of more than ten new cities in the southern and western India but the Congress’ plan of jobs for poor and farm support reached deep in the heart of rural India where most voters live.

In fact, BJP did not have a message that rural voters connected to for the second time in ten years. It is the economic prosperity that voters chose over the national security.

Many perceive Pakistan as a national threat but the greater fear of poverty and hunger drove most voters in the arms of Congress.

Pakistan can be tamed and borders can be secured by military regardless of which party rules, but it is the guaranteed daily wages and stable economic climate that voters prefer their ruling party to deliver.

The common man is still seeking a solution for Roti, Kapada Aur Makan (food, clothing and house) which in recent years has evolved to Naukri, Sadak Aur Bijli (job, roads and electricity).