BJP Triumphant, AAP Dazzling and Congress Omitted

Assembly elections prior to the Loksabha elections are always important. It gives a trailer of how general elections are going to look like. It does not just show the picture of those states but also gives an overview of the mood country is in. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi gave a clear mandate that they prefer Bhartiya Janata Party over Congress (I).  70% seats are won by BJP and congress got only 20% seats. This is a clear victory by BJP. BJP is going to form a govt in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh with clear majority. 

Delhi’s result showed an excellent debut by AAP (Aam Aadmi Party). A party which is just few months old, took on two national parties and came out with more than 30% of votes and is second largest party.  Many ridicule them by saying, “char aadmi ki party”, but people have voted them with hips and bounce. This is a historical moment, not only in Indian Politics but also in World’s Politics. It showed that there is nothing impossible and people can bring the change if they want it. 

Congress though has clearly lost in all states. However positive point for congress is that they have lost only few % of overall votes. Although results are showing major decline, if percentage of votes are considered, congress still got huge amount of votes. Swing in all states is somewhere around 2 to 3%. Chattisgarh, they lost few seats with a margin of less than 5% of votes. So there is a still hope for congress to do better if they listen to the people’s voice. One of the major mistake that Congress did was not announcing their chief minister candidature in Madhya Pradesh. Sonia Gandhi have realized that mistake and indicated that for general election, they must declare their Prime Minister candidate.

BJP must have found relief for hanging on to Chattisgarh which at one point seemed like going to Congress way due to sympathy vote. BJP must be happy seeing Rajasthan result but now comes a very critical stage, where they must not make any mistake in 3-4 months in Rajasthan. They desparately need 20+ seats from Rajasthan as they do not have much presence in Southern part of India. Also, BJP must realize that how Vasundara Raje and Narenra Modi campaiging in Rajasthan has worked. They must bring back Yedurappa if they want major votes in Karnataka. Couple of days back, Namo met Udhav Thackrey to make sure, all is well in Maharashtra for BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. NAMO’s focus for next few months will be around Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and hence he needs to quickly wrap up Maharashtra-Karanataka with U.Thackrey and Yedurappa. 

Madhya Pradesh’s result were expected for BJP due to excellence governance by chief minister Shivraj Chauhan. Also the fact that Uma Bharati joined back BJP in Madhya Pradesh, assured increase of 20-30 seats. Victory in MP also means that if NAMO card back fires from BJP in 2014 general elections than BJP already have the second string ready for 2019. Shivraj Chauhan has shown great capability to be a national leader and he will be the big name to recon with in coming years.

Delhi is going to be the hot spot for few days. Since BJP needs only 4 seats to form the govt some sort of horse trading will take place. Although Dr.Harshwardan (BJP’s chief minister candidate) has indicated that BJP would not like to do such things and are happy to sit in opposition, but general logic says, there will be few attempts. AAP has already indicated that there are folks from BJP calling for it but it will interesting to see what actually happens in few days. Both BJP and AAP’s credibility will go down if such things do happen and both parties will be aware of it. If re-elections takes place, both BJP and AAP will have an advantage and voters will consider either of them more compare to Congress or other candidates. 

Questions though remain on how AAP will be able to handle many scenarios in politics. Do they have experience to handle capital city’s problems from all corners? Can they successfully deliver major events such as Commonwealth? Considering their in-experience will they be able to remain united for 5 long years? It is one thing to get the votes and it is another thing to actually run the government. Yes, it is a brilliant start from them, but can they hang on and actually deliver what they promise? There are question marks for them, but at this moment, they must celebrate because this has changed the Politics of India and probably World.

Crazy College Football Rivalry

Rivalry between Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers is as good as New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox in college football. They play each year in Iron Ball and games are generally very competitive.  In 2012 game between Auburn and Alabama, score was 49-0 in favor of Alabama. Alabama shut down auburn tigers completely in front of 100,000 fans. Alabama was 13-1 in 2012 season and 7 wins and only 1 loss in SEC (conference) compare to Auburn which was 0-8. (0 wins in 8 conference games in 2012).

Now comes 2013. Alabama has gone to BCS Conference games two consecutive times and are ranked number 1 team in pre-season. Alabama maintained their number 1 position throughout the season. Alabama did not lost a single game and just 1 second before the season ends, they were scheduled to play in BCS Final. Auburn on the other hand, with 0-8 in previous season was not ranked team till 7^th Week of 2013. Week 7, they were ranked 24, Week 8 they were ranked number 11, and then week after week they kept improving by winning every game.  Before going to Alabama’s game, they were ranked number 4 and after that last crazy second, they are now favorite to be at number 2 positions and if they beat Missouri in next week’s game, will play in BCS Finals. What a turn around!!! 

Truly, from Zero to Hero and as their coach describe, it is a team of Destiny!!! Entire game against Alabama was a roller coaster ride. 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, 21-21 and then finally 28-28 just before the 1 second left on the game clock. Alabama was fighting to get that 1 second, which was a dramatic moment of the game. Very little Alabama knew that one second will ruin their chance to be it in the BCS Finals and probably winning it. Destiny had written a different fate for Auburn and as radio broadcaster described it, it was a  Holy Cow moment. 

Auburn-Alabama was not the only game which went to the wire this week though. Oregon vs Oregon State, another rivalry game ended very similarly with score line as 35-36 in favor of Oregon. Duke also won with a last minute field goal 27-25 against North Carolina.  Baylor vs TCU was also decided with a difference of one field goal (41-38) and another big rivalry, Michigan vs Ohio State Buck Eyes ended with a 1 point difference. There were too many good games and what a way to end College Football regular season game week!!!