The Politics of Winning
by Neelima Choahan
I NEVER thought I’d say this, but I have gained a new found respect for missionaries after my early morning foray into canvassing for BJP.
Armed with a few Friends of BJP flyers, I and a friend recently took to Lodhi Garden one Sunday morning to spread the message of ‘good governance, development and security’.
My friend Varun Shankar, who had gamely agreed to accompany me at the last moment, is a 20-year-old law student at Amity Law School, I P University, Delhi.
Though in the middle of his second year exams, he graciously dragged himself out of his bed and reached the park near dawn (or at least that’s what it felt like to us night creatures).
I don’t know whether I was more nervous about approaching perfect strangers or asking them the million dollar question:
“Who do you vote for?”
The sprawling gardens in up market South Delhi attract visitors from all sections of society.
Diplomats rub shoulders with yogis doing Surya Namaskar; families out on a picnic share the greens with youngsters playing pithu and Frisbee, while the fitness conscious huff and puff their way around the walking tracks criss-crossing the park.
That election was in the air could be discerned from a group of men and women discussing the merits of the different political parties.
Having never done this before, it took us some time to get our technique right.
Spotting our first target, Varun boldly went up to a couple of elderly gentleman lounging on a bench and asked if we could have a brief chat with them.
After ascertaining both the men were registered to vote (no point wasting our time) he then followed it up with the question ‘who are you voting for in this election?’.
Unfortunately, this direct approach got us nowhere as we were told in no uncertain terms that their vote was private and confidential.
I then asked them if they were happy with the present government. Alas, their answer was yes and they finally revealed they would vote for Congress.
Though, somewhat dejected we refused to give up and continued on our expedition.
All in all, we spent three hours at the park and approached about 25 people of different age groups from mostly middle to upper middle class background.
We came upon at least eight voters who were definitely supporting Congress yet only two women said they were going for BJP.
Around five people said they were former BJP supporters but had not made up their mind about who to vote for in this election.
These are the people that we targeted hoping to convince them to remain with BJP.
The issues discussed varied according to the concerns of the people. A young family said they were concerned at the rise of Islamic terrorism and Congress’ appeasement policies targeting minorities. Yet, they felt the BJP did not have concrete game plan for the future.
We emphasised the uncertainty surrounding UPA Prime Ministerial candidate vis-à-vis NDA’s Lal Krishna Advani.
Price rise, lack of security and economic growth were some of the other topics discussed.
However, a lot of those leaning towards the BJP said they would choose it because it was the “lesser of the two evils”.
If we were to judge BJP’s standing based on the people we spoke to, then I would say that BJP has not been able to maintain its USP or unique selling point.
Jaded from years of broken promises, the Indian voters seemed to be in no mood to be patient and are ready to tar BJP with the same brush as the corrupt Congress.
If BJP succeeds this election, it will not do so because it has convinced the apathetic Indian voter that it is the only choice but because of the mayhem and confusion in its rival’s camp.
So win or lose, both BJP and Friends of BJP has a lot of work to do.
Comments
4 Responses to “The Politics of Winning”
What one can learn from your experience is fallowing:
The voting intention of majority of urban voters is largely influenced by Media.
Media plays fallowing game in India.
1-Same Media ,which otherwise keep raising the issues of corruption and bad governance and keep ridiculing ministers, mysteriously become ardent supporters of ruling class during election time. Instead Media indulge in making fun of principle opposition party and spreading mis-information.
2-By making false projection of Congress party’s winning ,Media spreads despondency among BJP supporters .
3-Media plays down the real issues like inflation, terrorism, bijali/sadak/paani, development etc. instead it keep on harping on pseudo –secularism.
4-character assassination of BJP politicians.
5- Highlighting inner party clashes of BJP.
6-Blacking out important news worthy events of BJP.
So, Media management is the key to electoral success.
कपटी कांग्रेस
आज के प्रेस कांफ्रेंस में मनमोहन सिंह ने कहा है कि एन डी ए १६ तारीख के बाद टूट जायेगी .तो मुझे बरबस ही नरसिम्हा राव के ज़माने की १ करोड़ की सूटकेस घूस काण्ड की याद ताज़ा हो गयी .और अभी हाल की घटना को याद करें तो कम्युनिस्टों के समर्थन वापसी के बाद कांग्रेस ने सांसदों की खरीद फरोख्त कर अपनी यू पी ए की सरकार बचाई थी .
इस कपटी कांग्रेस का कोई भरोसा नहीं कि कब क्या कर दे .क्योंकि उसका इतिहास ही कपट और भ्रष्टाचार से भरा पड़ा है .इसलिए बीजेपी नेताओं को चाहिए कि अपने घटक दलों को ज़रा कांग्रेस की बुरी नज़रों से बचाकर रखे .क्योंकि अगर कांग्रेस की बुरी नज़र उसके घटक दलों पर पड़ गयी तो एन डी ए को मुश्किलों का सामना करना पड़ सकता है .
neelima captures the moment exactly as it is. yes there is a rising tide against the congress regime, but the elections have come far too early for it to have any deeper or electoral impact. the congress has played it safe, but for a few who are uncomfortable with itsa placid pace, the voters may also play it safe. after all there seems no neecessity for a dragon right now.
Very informative article, and Vinod is right on the money. Even I know people in Delhi, who voted for Congress in the last assembly elections because of what in my mind is media created hype about Shiela Dikshit government by magnifying and overstating its achievements while magnifying and overstating exactly the opposite in the case of the BJP.
From some experience of volunteering in a very well run and well organized political campaign not so long ago in the U.S., I know it helped to identify what the hot button, ‘bread and butter’ issues were for the voters (often either misinformed, ill-informed or uninformed) and develop and speak to substantive, informative talking points around those in how a candidate’s/party’s governance agenda answers those issues.
I thought there was plenty in the BJP manifesto to go from and in the issues it has taken up even things like bringing stolen Indian money in Swiss Banks bank home - the fact that there are people out there thinking that the BJP has no concrete plan may have something to do with that the plans and what those mean for the things people care about did not seem to have been hammered home with focus and persistence in terms lay people can understand.
May be there needs to some collective discussion on the specific ‘To Do’ things for overcoming this phenomenon of manipulation of public consciousness and the inertia of misinformed and uninformed and set the record straight.