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.
