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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  AAP’s declining momentum and NaMo’s critical analysis
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AAP’s declining momentum and NaMo’s critical analysis

Election Round-up brings to you daily commentary on what the world is saying about the Lok Sabha polls

A file photo of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during his election road show in New Delhi. Photo: PTIPremium
A file photo of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during his election road show in New Delhi. Photo: PTI

Now that everyone has had the time to go through the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto, are they satisfied?

At Livemint.com, we found that the document is “consistent with its strategy to make itself politically more acceptable."

The Hindu Business Line feels that the manifestos of both (the Congress and the BJP) parties offer good news for the information technology (IT) sector, with signs of increased technology spending. “What remains to be seen is whether the next government allots more funding for e-governance or for specific initiatives such as improving healthcare and IT skill sets. Either ways, Indian IT companies will garner more business," Ganesh Natarajan,vice-chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies told the newspaper.

But why rely on other people’s analyses? The Hindustan Times has a comparison of manifestos published by the four leading parties.

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan at Scroll.in compares the latest BJP manifesto to previous ones and the Congress document yielding what he calls “interesting results": “The message that the BJP is trying to drive home couldn’t be more obvious. Aside from essentially reproducing its ‘cultural heritage’ page from the 2009 manifesto—with references to the Ram Mandir, Ram Setu, the Ganga and the ‘Cow and its progeny’—this year’s document tries to focus entirely on development, even if what some of the BJP’s top leaders are saying on the ground is entirely different."

Meanwhile, polling in Assam and Tripura has been brisk. Livemint reports that turnouts have been high with 85% and 75% in Tripura and Assam, respectively. A high bar has been set for the rest of the country that will take some passing.

Talking of voters and turnouts, there has been much brouhaha over the hordes of young people expected to turn up at booths this year for the first time. But what of the golden oldies? The Hindustan Times reports that there are 324 voters registered in Delhi who are 100 years or older. The paper asked Kalitara Mandal, 104, who she was voting for. “Whoever my son asks me to," Mandal said.

As we get closer to the polls, and closer to what seems like a result in favour of Narendra Modi and the BJP, the analysis of the person, politician and campaigner has deepened. The Guardian has a comment piece by Aditya Chakrabortty with the unambiguous headline “Narendra Modi, a man with a massacre on his hands, is not the reasonable choice for India".

Meanwhile, the Modi wave may not be exactly powering along in the home constituencies.

The Times of India reports that rural Gujaratis are unenthused: “Bharatiya Janata Party’s much hyped ‘NaMo Mehndi’ campaign is struggling to meet party leaders’ expectations in the Allahabad district. The campaign, which proved quite successful in the run up to the Rajasthan assembly elections, was launched in the district with high hopes. However, against a target of covering one lakh women voters, the party workers have so far managed to put “Kamal Mehndi" on only 40,000 pairs of hands."

Meanwhile, here at Livemint.com Aakar Patel claims that L.K. Advani was the worst leader of our time. “Modi did not create the incident at Godhra. It can be rightly said that he was incompetent in managing the acts of vengeance that followed. But Advani created his Godhra, at Ayodhya. Quite deliberately, he set about to stir trouble against Muslims," Patel writes.

At the Congress, which awaits a poll reversal that could be be quite dire, hope may lie in...yet another Gandhi. The Business Standard has a piece by Sahil Makkar that suggests the party should run Priyanka Gandhi from Varanasi. “The first thing that comes to mind is the colour draining from the faces of her competitors. Both men would lose their appetite, zeal and might appear as children stopped from having their favourite ice-cream. Surely, it is enough to send chills down anybody’s spine."

Quite.

However, The Hindu gives us a timely reminder that Varanasi and Chandni Chowk aren’t the only constituencies that matter. Madurai may well be a key battleground, one where the “Alagiri factor refuses to die down."

What? An update without Arvind Kejriwal? Perish the thought and slap it across the face. Firstbiz.com suggests that ‘Peak Kejriwal’ is behind us. “According to a new report by brokerage Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd, the momentum of AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) has been on the decline ever since the party relinquished office of Delhi government in 49 days. According to a CNN-IBN-CSDS poll, the vote share of AAP in many states has declined since its January 2014 peak; in particular, the decline has been striking in Delhi, the only place where it held a near-majority share of the votes."

And finally, veteran politician N.D. Tiwari maybe left with no option but to run as an independent. The Hindustan Times reports that both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have washed their hands of the controversial Tiwari. Still the veteran, who has served as chief minister thrice, governor once and a minister for external affairs once, is on the prowl. “In the last few days the octogenarian Congress leader has been touring the parliamentary constituency with his biological son Rohit Shekhar and his mother Ujjawala," reports the paper.

We hope you enjoy today’s update. We would keep a close eye on the comments section of that The Guardian piece.

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Published: 08 Apr 2014, 04:05 PM IST
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