G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, the psephologist behind Development and Research Services (DRS), who had offered ‘Six reasons why Congress will lose in Karnataka‘, now offers seven tips for the Congress to start winning again.
# Don’t bank on negative vote: Anti-incumbency doesn’t work if incumbent governments govern better.
# Take care of organistional health: Get strong leaders with experience, stature and mass following.
# Anoint your leader: Elections are increasingly personality-oriented; it helps to have a face.
# Get caste calculus right: Clearly understand and exploit the caste dynamics in each state.
# Counter future BSP damage: Adopt a dalit-friendly approach in future elections.
# Improve election management: Gone are the days of winning elections by chanting Panditji, Indiraji, Rajivji.
# Get some aggression into the system: Believe in yourself, instead of getting defensive and looking for excuses.
Read the full article here: Seven tips for Congress to start wining again
Also read: Twelve and a half steps Congress must take. Or else.
Tags: Churumuri, Congress, Development and Research Services, DRS, Indira Gandhi, Karnataka Elections, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi
26 May 2008 at 3:06 pm
I agree by and large with GVL Narsimha Rao’s points. Although I don’t agree with the term ‘psephologist’ attached to his name. His agency gave 49 to congress and 41 to JDS! Way off the final mark of 80 for cong and 28 for JDS . He also got BJPs tally wrong. He said it will get 120!
But, you need to think out of the box to revive the congress. Here is one such tip:
Probably Congress should start a subsidiary party – a Hindu political party, (which stands for and supports Hindu causes – like that of the pandits in Jammu and Kashmir, stopping minority appeasement, etc) just to ensure that it chips away at BJP’s traditional vote bank.
And
26 May 2008 at 3:26 pm
Absolute rubbish!
These are the points that have made Indian politics bad. Sticking to these especially caste and religion as vote banks can never take the country/state forward.
My answer would be to get more newer and younger leaders and groom them and getting them more active at local bodies and local issues…to get local support and then create local strongholds based on performance to reflect at state and national level.
I know it sounds like a 10 year plan but that is the hard way.
26 May 2008 at 3:29 pm
Shravan, of course i was kidding.
26 May 2008 at 4:59 pm
Yawn — could sum up the post in one word.
26 May 2008 at 5:06 pm
Why should I worry what happens to the Congress? What does it have to show for hijacking the nation for nearly five decades?
26 May 2008 at 5:07 pm
Point # – Get rid of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Bring in Indegenous leaders who don’t just read speeches in an italian accent. Rahul has proved to be utterly incompetent and brainless, he hasn’t shown or uttered any single sentence of substance in his 38 years of existence. Not all leaders who have leadership thrust on them emerge successful.
Point# – Think of development rather than appeasement of different sections of the population. THe congress party has become a churmuri with different leaders representing all factions. Too many cooks spoil the party.
Point# – You cant fool all the people all the time
Point #- Stop acting as if the very mention of the word Hindu is communal
Point # – Don’t worry about BSP unless it is in UP. It is a regional party based on self aggrandizement of its leader and will die a natural death soon. BSP hasn’t done much against you or dented your dalit votes in Karnataka.
Point # – If you can field dalit and muslims and pander to their votebanks, there is nothing which prevents the dalits and muslims to be feilded by other parties. JD(S) did it so will others.
Point # – Caste and minorities are not monolithic blocksof voters. They can be easily split. What you need is charishmatic leaders. Sonia is obviously not. Stop beleiving in that lie.
26 May 2008 at 5:30 pm
What they need now is:
19 reasons for the Congress to start whining again
26 May 2008 at 6:13 pm
Stop being psychophants.
Stop defending Sonia/Rahul all the time. (When congress wins credit goes to Sonia G but when it loses, its the local leadership which takes the blame).
26 May 2008 at 8:53 pm
Hiker–
Smart observation. Sychopancy is in the blood of our politicians. It is a shame there has not occured among us Kannadigas an equivalent of Gandhi for whom self-respect, hence self-determination–was a mantra despite his belief in “Yadaa yadaahi dharmasya.”
26 May 2008 at 10:36 pm
Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi slept on Mandal for 10 years.
An insecure VP Singh pulls it out of nowhere and VP Singh becomes a footnote in history.
Fast forward 2006. An insecure Arjun Singh pulls out OBC reservations in higher institutions. Congress is losing election afer elections because of this.
It does not get extra OBC votes.
It loses all upper caste vote.
Gujarath was lost to BJP this way never to come back.
Karnataka may happen this way. (Coastral karnataka inspite of BJP losing few seats is still a BJP stronghold).
Time for somebody in Congress to show leadership and roll back all mandal mania which Rajeev Gandhi blasted in parliament for 1 hour speech.
Chance of this happenning by Italian Sonia – 10 percent.
26 May 2008 at 11:36 pm
Isnt this advice coming a little too late? Anyway like they say hindsight is 20-20…
27 May 2008 at 1:21 am
they are contradicting themselves :D
# Anoint your leader: Elections are increasingly personality-oriented; it helps to have a face.
# Improve election management: Gone are the days of winning elections by chanting Panditji, Indiraji, Rajivji.
27 May 2008 at 6:54 pm
Central Election Management Software used by BJP should be blindly copied by the INC. Look for leaders who can talk on their own. In Karnataka i would like to see these younger leaders a chance to rule on their own.
DK Shivkumar, Dinesh Gundu rao, Krishna Byre Gowda,MR seetharam & Narendra babu with people like somanna to back them up. Siddarammaih cant win elections outside Mysore, he can be dumped..
All these should retire
Kharge, Dharamji, HK Patil, Vishwanath, MP prakash, Deshpande
28 May 2008 at 10:07 am
Good observation Karthik and Shankin.