Monday, November 9, 2015

Bihar Elections 2015 : There is more than just a win

178 /  58 ; everyone in India and around the world would know what I am intending to say or imply. Bihar defeat is not a defeat for BJP but a defeat for all those people who think power is perpetual and humans of today's digital age can be taken for a ride.



In the weekend gone by , besides the usual cleaning for the festivities I was also keeping a close track of the elections in Bihar in parallel to my travel schedule . After being on calls and messages from people across the spectrum everyone was keen to hear few initial thoughts from me ; both as a local citizen of this country and also as a person who keeps a track on the political system of India.

First thought ; Again ! This was the exact word which I said over and over . Delhi elections were an eye-opener for the ruling BJP led NDA consortium . The Delhi elections did gave away key learnings  :  the importance of a local state leader whit whom the masses can identify and look up to ; the importance of going door-door and meeting people and gunuinely hearing them and preparing an agenda from them , for them .  Active but intelligent use of digital as a media for reaching out to more social audience and thereby gaining the social word of mouth  . And lastly , giving power to not just one person or parliamentary board but having a structure where people feel involved and part of the entire process .  Lastly ,  being extremely careful with choice of words being shelled out .


If you closely look at the Bihar Results , BJP as a leading NDA partner failed or if I can say mis-read all of the above.

India , as a country has a pulse where a leader who 'belongs' to their area , 'speaks'  in a language they speak in and 'understands ' in a way like noone else can  , is 'the ' neta of these people.  With the RJD emerging as the single largest party in the state , this statement cannot be more than true now.

Besides the above , one more thing which I personally fail to understand is if you use your 'charm '  more than once or over and over again ,  it will fade out and also lose its sheen and relevancy .  Same is the case with overdoing the Modi card .  Why , in a state like Bihar where BJP has an array of local leaders good enough to work up , we have hoardings across of Modiji and Amit Shah ji .

While its good to re-iterate as a thought that the center is with you but you need to have a local touch and it doesn't matter if it gets more space than the national leaders on the marketing walls.

People of India are smart and with each passing day make a choice noone can think about . If they were clear that they needed BJP led government at the national stage they did all out. If they were clear they preferred Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar in Delhi and Bihar , they again went all out.

What needs to be seen is not how fast Bihar will grow but how fast everyone learns these hard lessons and implements them .  For me as an Indian , I would love to see our state BIHAR progress ahead and sheds its not-so-good tags which have sticked onto it in the decades gone by.

As a true warrior , jo jeeta wohi sikandar....

Aloha on the Ganges

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