In the bygone years the elections were very different from the present. Those elections were mostly fought on the sleazy agendas of cast, creed, religion and some other regional issues. People generally cast their votes based on their own personal judgment. They usually voted for the candidate of their own cast or religion, without thinking about the merit of that candidate.

Now India has changed a lot, especially in the last five years. The mentality of Indian voters has also changed as democracy matured over the years. Now when they cast their votes they also keep other things in mind. They vote on such issues that they think are more important to them, than voting for their cast member.    

Narendra Modi believes that the people will vote for the progress of India. This is the reason why he is avoiding the usual political agendas and ideologies of BJP. Instead of hailing the old issues of Hindutva, he is insisting on creating a new and strong India that could become a world leader.

Population census shows that this year there will be more than fifteen crore young people, who would cast their votes for the first time. And they have no interest in the old histories and philosophies. What they need are better jobs, exciting career options and creating their own unique identity. Modi is selling the dream of a new shining economy that would focus on development and progress. There is still the philosophy of Hindutva and Sardar Patel in the backdrop, but it is only there to please RSS.  

Modi is making such promises that people believe he could accomplish. He knows his audience. And he is trying every tool in his kit to attract them.  He first kicked off his election campaign on social media. He reached out to most of the young voters through his tweets and Facebook updates. After that he started a very aggressive road show.

Now not only youngsters support him, but the business and entrepreneurial communities are also praising his efforts. The business community believes that he genuinely want to develop an economy that could support a healthy business growth. Now they are openly supporting him.

On the other hand Arvind Kejriwal believes that all Indians hate corruption. He thinks that people are not getting their fair share due to government corruption. That’s why he is making promises about eliminating corruption from the government and bureaucracy. He also understands the importance of real time coverage that he gets due to his demonstrations on the road.

Like Modi, Kejriwal also utilized the power of social media and he registered strong presence on every social networking site. Using these tools he was able to reach out and influence the ever growing and ambitious middle-class. He became the voice of the middle-class that was desperate to be heard and have its own share of political influence.

The middle-class is growing impatient with all the political shenanigans. They need something to vent their anger and frustration against the authority. And fighting against government corruption serves this purpose.

Congress is deeply involved in all the major corruption scandals, that’s why Congress suffered a major blow. And it has become the least popular political party. This is exactly what Kejriwal wanted to achieve because it shifts the massive vote bank of Congress in his favor.

Middle-class may not always agree with Kejriwal and they may condone his anarchic ways, but it is impressed with him because of the way he has changed the game. This is the reason why AAP is attracting so much support from the people of every class. These people have been waiting for an unorthodox alternative to join the political system of this country.

After all this, Congress has to change its political strategy completely. Right now things look pretty bleak for congress. Congress has lost the votes of the youngsters and members of upper middle-class to Modi. And a large section of middle-class is supporting Kejriwal and his party. Congress has also lost its minority vote bank. And it has also lost the support of corporate world that has always backed Congress.

Recently during an interview that Rahul Gandhi gave to Arnab Goswami indicated his interesting viewpoints. He never even once mentioned religious intolerance. He avoided all the questions about corruption and always appealed to Arnab to look at the big picture. He was obviously addressing the vote banks of youngsters and women. But he doesn’t really succeed in making any impact on this group. He doesn’t look fully prepared. Even Arnab took pity on him for his poor performance and offered him some relief from his grueling questions.

We know that in the upcoming general elections of 2014 these three could be the prominent players. But there are also other candidates and parties that could challenge them. There are many other popular leaders who are not in the limelight today. Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnayak, Jayalalitha, Mayavati, Jagmohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu also have the power to attract voters. They could change the results very easily through clever coalitions.

We recently witnessed how congress, with only eight seats gave BJP, who won thirty two seats, a big shock. Clever alliances could still keep Congress in the race because only winning seats don’t mean everything. Ultimately what matters is forming a winning coalition.

It is also a possibility that the party who wins maximum seats is unable to form a government, because other parties could come forward to beat them. This is the only possibility where the vast political armory of Congress could come into play. But right now the conditions are not in the favor of Congress party. Their election campaign seems to be in a pitiable state. Their huge reserve of money could not replace clever political tactics.

It even seems like Congress doesn’t really care if it wins or loses this election. The Congress tacticians are working on the scenarios after the election where they could create a new UPA-III. Is there any such possibility? Why not? The only problem is that their alliances also have a habit of joining the winning parties. Modi could use this opportunity in his favor. Or it is even possible that Kejriwal could use a completely different plan and shock everybody.

Photo source - Wikipedia