India, the world’s biggest and most vibrant democratic nation elected Congress led UPA for a second term. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s return back to power signifies the meaning of people’s verdict for stability. He had a strenuous task to complete the tenure without full majority, especially when the Left parties withdrew support on the ground of Indo-US nuclear deal. Regional parties had a black mailing attitude that pressurized the party and government many times. But Manmohan moved with a vision that was far from the image of an ordinary political leader. He applied professionalism in politics with the help of youth leader Rahul Gandhi. The impressive victory of Congress has been a surprising one to its own leaders. He has become the only prime minister who has been voted back to power after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961, completing the first five year tenure.
Just before the final stage of elections, Manmohan had said his party would ask for Left’s support after the counting of votes. That showed his simplicity and respect in democratic system. But the result was more than expected and party did not have to approach left or any major parties like Myawaty’s BSP. Instead many leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav came forward with un-conditional support and corrected his stand before the elections. Congress alone secured in 206 seats while Trinamool Congress DMK(Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam) and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) captured 19, 18, and 9 respectively. National Conference and JMM (Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha) contributed three and two seats respectively in 543 member parliament. Congress has become successful with strong and decisive allies like Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, DMK in Tamil Nadu. Congress and its partners have performed well even in the left bastion West Bengal and won a landslide victory in Kerala. Rahul’s “discovery “of India and Manmohan’s “econo- magic” has contributed to the victory of Congress, according to political think-tanks.
The party could recover from the past defeats by winning more seats to its own account. Even the predictions of political astrologers and exit poll masters went wrong, when UPA proved its majority without any horse- trading. The victory gave strong blow to the main opposition party, Bharatheeya Janatha Party (BJP), left parties and its allies set for third front. Regional parties had not much role to bargain for joining or support the government in the name of number game.
Rahul’s experiment in the Uttar Pradesh to go alone found success. Same formula applied in Bihar too.
It was a challenging trial where many regional parties ,with caste based ideologies were fighting to defeat Congress. Party had been trailing behind the regional forces in UP for decades. Being the biggest state to contribute 80 members to parliament, Congress experiment to fight alone and ‘win maximum’ policy helped lot. According to independent analysts, the trial run can be applied in next elections and that would help to form a government with single majority. Congress maintained its base in Andhra Pradesh, recovered from its loss in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Congress played well with its allies.
Congress had much bigger win in 1984 and 1991. But that was the result of a sympathetic wave after the assassinations of its top leaders Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Manmohan’s economic policy has become a success even in the time of economic downturn. His decisive actions to invest in agriculture and brave initiatives to attract foreign direct investment marked a progressive era in Indian finance. A sign of development has been appearing everywhere. Voters had all these matters in mind while responding through ballots.
The global meltdown has affected Indian economy also. India’s growth has slowed down. But still India has a hope to recover sooner than any other developed nation. According to Kaushik Basu, Professor of economics, Cornell University, “the Indian economy is doing well, maybe better than it has any time in recent history”. India’s growth rate during the time of recession is much better than all other G20 nations except China. He also commented that Mnamohan Singh was the contributor to the Congress victory than the party.
When cross-border terrorism become a major challenge to India, people must have bothered about stability than anything.
There are many challenges before the newly elected government. The maintenance of strong internal security, utilization of global opportunity to handle Indian economic sector professionally for a sustainable development, encouraging NRI ventures and surpass the job opportunities for youth are all major concern for India’s high rise.
