Why NaMo succeeded in 2014 and why should I think that he would do so in future as well, Part 1

Why NaMo succeeded in 2014 and why should I think that he would do so in future as well, Part 1.

General elections of 2014 were unique in many ways like it is for the first time after 1984-85, that any single party has gained simple majority in Lok Sabha, the popularly elected house of parliament. 

Besides, it is for the first time that a sitting Chief Minister was elevated to the rank of Prime Minister.

Thirdly, unlike the past, voters were not swayed by the rhetoric of so called secular and non secular forces. We may say so since winning 73 seats out of total 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh would not have been feasible without the minorities voting for BJP. We may recall that minorities have very strong presence in almost 27 seats - that is 33% of total seats. Of the 7 seats that went elsewhere, 2 were won by mother son duo of Congress, and 5 seats went to SP supremo Mulayam Singh and his close family members. Results were almost similiar in some other states with higher minority populace.

Also, notably, unlike in the past, BJP had openly declared Mr Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. Remember, this was not the case even when Late Indira Gandhi was at the helm of affairs. Although it was known to all but she never declared herself as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Even Late Rajiv Gandhi contested elections without being declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate. 

 

Another notable aspect is that BJP fought and won this election under the leadership of someone who is essentially not a career politician. Mr Namrendra Modi had never been in the mainstream politics and never even contested an election before being anointed as Chief Minister of Gujarat in Oct 2001. 

 

Besides, to me it holds much higher significance that BJP fought and won this election under the leadership of an ordinary person, that is someone who is son of poor parents, who used to earn their livelihood through a hard days toil. His parents were no royals, no feudal landlords, no industrialists, no traders, no contractors, not even local advocates or even influential Sarpanch of the area. 

 

For the first time, people had a candidate who genuinely gave his entire life to social work and this enthused the  people. Besides, it is also seen that having no offspring of his own, he did not have the burden of securing the future of his heirs. This is seen as a really big plus point in our political scene.

 

Besides, in my view, what appealed to the youth was his unbelievably good health, high level of motivation and dynamism unseen till now, his ease with the computers, technology and the gadgets. His team came up with innovative uses of technology to reach out to maximum numbers of voters.

 

And then, in the end, it is his ease with words, that makes him a unique inspiring leader of masses. Fact is that he is communicator par excellence and even his detractors are forced to acknowledge this.

....to be continued....