The election results are out and UPA has scored a big run over BJP and won’t even need Left’s support to form the government.
Question that’s bugging me is whether it was Congres’ idealogy that won them this election (best result since 1977) or was it BJP’s mediocre campaign that did the trick?
Tum hamesha harte ho kyunki tum mujhe harane ki sochte rahe. Mein kabhi hara nahi kyunki mein hamesha jeet ne ki sochta raha.
Here are a few lessons for BJP:
Lack of Leadership
Advani, in my humble opinion doesn’t command the same respect as his predecessor, Vajpayee. Congress was clear when it came to leadership – Sonia Gandhi handled the party issues, Rahul/Priyanka Gandhi led the front.
Most importantly, Sonia Gandhi’s strong command over her party ensured the consistency in messaging.
Confused Messaging
Finger Worked
Advani was projected as a PM candidate, but then Narendra Modi’s name was doing the rounds as well (BJP now realizes that their biggest mistake was to promote Narendra Modi’s name as PM!) – so who was the final candidate? Advani or Modi?
BJP’s confused messaging did the trick for Congress.
As far as Congress was concerned, it was clear on PM candidature. Nobody else, but Manmohan Singh.
Youth Connection?
This election saw a significant number of youth voting for the first time – Rahul Gandhi’s aggressive campaigning did the trick and Delhi/UP results are a testimonial of the same.
BJP didn’t focus on youth at all – 80 year old is too large a gap for youth to connect to the party.
The biggest challenge for BJP was lack of youth leaders/connection – and they ended up supporting Varun Gandhi who still lived in archaic thoughts where religion was more important than anything else in the world.
Negative Negative doesn’t mean Positive
BJP’s campaigns arose negative sentiments. Congress positioned itself as a reformer.
Simple.
While it’s always true that incumbent gets an advantage (can market the reform they initiated), I am 100% sure that BJP could have done a better job. They spend crores of rupees (Rs. 250 Crores for Advani’s Campaign) selling the dream to wrong target segment (Internet advertising was so damn useless – you are targeting 2-3% of the crowd, out of which only 20% will vote!).
BJP’s campaign didn’t focus on reforms, but on lack of reforms. Congress’ TV ads showcased common mass embracing Congress, while BJP was all about Advani.
Infact, BJP’s campaign was anti-UPA – and that never meant that they were better than UPA.
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What’s your take? Share your opinion.
Some of the surprises :
- P Chidambram lost, but eventually won (recounting)
- Shashi Tharoor won
- Mamta Bannerjee’s party TC inspite of her anti-Nano stand won.
- Capt. Gopinath lost
- Maneka Gandhi lost, but eventually won (recounting).
img credit
Market a bad product and you fail faster. Thats why they lost.
Tarun – Do you mean congress is a better product? Not really. Its all abt messaging/positioning (great stuff ashish)
More than happy to know Congress would be able to form the govt. without Left’s support.
Opinion on Rahul’s campaign:
I think the first time voters (this time) didn’t actually look at Rahul and vote, it was more of a mass (peer pressure) effect that Congress has delivered what it had promised [jobs]. Maybe, Rahul/Priyanka’s charm might have worked too.
70% of Rural population of India voted Congress back…India will not come out of Gandhi family monarchy for atleast another 20-25 years…
Bullshit !! The election commision is tampering votes and counting, since the EVM are introduced, the congress is duping the Country. Everything in this country is manipulated.
Blind BJP fools like you never accept a verdict that rejects the BJP and its politics of hate. Advani had the best chance to become PM this time, but being the narrow minded selfish idiot he really is, he made a mess of it. Insulting MMS, defending Varun Gandhi’s remarks and whole host of other controversies led to the inevitable defeat of the BJP/NDA. People like you need to learn not to be sore losers and learn from mistakes and maybe just maybe the BJP/NDA will win in 2014.
You big foooool, EVM are tempered. It’s easy, that’s why USA and others countries are not using this.
ya u r the only one with brains , so bring bjp to power n suffer.
oh yes ur right…jsut like the way u have been manipulated…and fools like u vote for BJP….they cant even manage a state what will the take care of a nation…see how people of karnataka n gujrat are suffering coz of the BJP led government….no security even for girls there….BJP is just sick…n cant beleive people like u ..are blind enough not to see wht they r doin….they just deserve to go down n down the drain….
I congratulate Congress to emrge as winner.Even Congress was not expecting such a victory. You are right BJP has lost becaus eof certain reasons & they will go down further by the time next elections comes. But that is not a great sign for india.
seriously, we in karnataka have suffered a lot because bjp. they won here because they have no strong opposition
I don’t think there was any thing wrong with the BJP campaign, the ONLY reason why I think BJP lost was:
1. Lack of leadership.
2. RAHUL GANDHI (But I don’t think he is an apt PM YET, its too early to judge!)
I don’t understand this, IF many new people [YOUTH] voted this year, there should have been a little rise in the turnout percentage, but, its the same at 57%. WHY, HOW?!
Because middle class didnt vote – look at mumbai and calcutta, to be very specific.
If middle class didn’t vote, then explain the rout of the LF in Calcutta.
Oh come one, gimme a break. BJP’s campaign was based along the lines of ‘Bhay Ho’. They spoke about why Congress was bad, not why they were good. It isn’t the same thing.
I am not sure if these could actually be the reasons. The actual reason could lie in alliances, and anti-incumbency (which BJP faces in several states like Rajasthan/MP etc. from their last term in the State Assembly).
If you have noticed, BJP hasn’t lost too many seats — it’s not gained enough, while Congress has by smarter alliances (eg., in WB with TMC).
There can’t be any national level analysis, you have to go down to the state level and analyse every state independently keeping the past governments/incumbency/alliances in account.
Also, most voters in India didn’t see any of the online advertising … Mumbai South has 55% percent living in urban slums, but the voting was only 35%, majority of which was from the slums, the yuppie mobile urban population hardly voted. No wonder for a long time, BSP was leading in Mumbai-South!
BJP hasn’t lost too many seats …hohoho..you must be some junk BJP guy still dreaming and your anti-incumbency theory, are you mad?
BJP was very strong in North India be it Punjab, Haryana,Delhi Himachal, Rajasthan, & U.P. But they have lost almost whole of North except Himachal. That is the biggest setback for them.
they did th best and they deserve it
In my opinion lack of clear agenda by BJP is the reason. lately they again said they will be building the mandir and all..however it was not there in the manifesto i think for this years election.
Also mr. Advani is not as popular as Hon Bajpayee Jee and the Modi factor came into lay by media.
Clearly lack of leadership and the agenda. also heir campaign was not that good.
Not that Manmohan Singh was the reason why Congress won, but it was actually Advani the reason why BJP lost.
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I think the campaign was wasteful and negative. And having Advanni as the PM candidate ensured a lot of people my age didn’t vote for him.
Bangalore as always, went against the national sentiment, and my vote just got lost in that!
In my opinion the prime reason why BJP lost is the lack of discipline, which was its forte a few years back. Not that I feel congress is any more discipline party but I feel that it is full of courtiers who are scared to death to have an opinion of their own and are always ready to toe the party (read Gandhi family) line, which makes them appears as a disciplined party.
Overall I felt that BJP’s campaign was mostly fine except that their few leaders raising the hard core hindutava flag now and then. In my opinion this has helped congress to get more of negative votes. And probably this could explain why it’s final tally is even better than it’s own projections.
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Shashi Tharoor winning was no surprise. He had charisma, a clear vision and mass support cutting across segments in his favour.
Well…
Thank’s to Varun Ghandhi for his speech.
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It is true that BJP lost 20 odd seats from last time. However, it failed to take advantage of the voter apathy for regional parties.
in todays world everything depends on how u have positioned yourself,even a bad product can be a hit if u can position that particular thing properly.Same in the case of congress they have positioned well “congress ka hath aam aadmi k saath”,they targeted the right section of the indian masses that is the youth while BJP on the other hand had only stressed on Advani,didnot focused on youth at all how can young generation which consists of 80%of indian population relate themself to an old man.Congress USP is Rahul Gandhi and lack of youth leaders in BJP helped congress to win.
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who gives a shit if congress won? they are no better for india and that’s why india is still in the economy crisis. blind indians didn’t see this and voted for india’s enemy party “congress”. seriously, you blind people should have voted for bjp. they have built india better in last few years and congress? they peed on our india and didn’t even make a single change.
You are such a fool i have ever seen in my life. I think you are the biggest follower of BJP. If you are the real citizen of India, really want to speak about the development which taken place in India come out of the argument. I think you are the only blind person in India who could not able to see the growth charts all over the world, even after the crisis.
Start to see the things happening around you buddy. Don’t blame the others. Indian citizens are the most intelligent people, don’t scold any more, one day you will be hit very badly……
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