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Saturday, January 16, 2016

Urban local elections is the future of LSP

Winning seats in city corporations is the most effective way for Lok Satta Party to grow. The party has gained acceptance in educated urban areas in certain cities in South India. The party can translate this into electoral victories if it focuses on certain specific divisions / wards in these cities where the party enjoys the demographic advantage. That is the reason it is important for LSP to fight hard in city corporations such as GHMC, BBMP, etc.

It is not easy for a party like LSP to win an MP or MLA seat in an urban area without first tasting success at the level of city corporations. Why?

1) An MP or MLA campaign requires significantly higher resources to create a 'wave' in that constituency towards victory. Even highly reputed contestants end up biting the dust

2) Sizable section of people tend to vote during General elections for a national party that they want to see in power at the center, even though they 'like' the LSP candidate who is contesting as an MP candidate.

For example, a large section of LSP sympathisers voted for BJP in the 2014 elections because they wanted Modi to become PM, even though they hated the local MP candidate of BJP (or a local party in alliance with BJP). This holds true for a typical State election too.

3) With a great campaign, an election at the division/ward level is winnable, as it is far easier to inspire your target voters to vote for you on pure 'performance' plank.

That said, the major challenge for LSP is that a typical LSP supporter does not vote at all in the city corporation / municipal elections! Hence, the mobilization and inspiring skills of the local candidate to get her educated voters (who are notorious for not exercising their vote) to the voting booth becomes most important.

Hence, LSP fighting the oncoming GHMC elections in February 2016 with enthusiasm is a very important story of the endeavor for clean politics.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Where is Aam Aadmi Party in 2016 GHMC elections? Why are they shying away?

We all know how Aam Aadmi Party acted irresponsibly with Lok Satta Party between 2013 to 2014. Even though Lok Satta Party supported AAP in 2013 Delhi Assembly elections and stopped itself from placing candidates against AAP candidates, AAP decided to fight against LSP in 2014 General Elections and 2014 united Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. Ungrateful, small-minded folks!

If AAP was serious about bringing out a corruption-free politics, then why did it go all out to attempt to defeat LSP? AAP fielded candidates against Jayaprakash Narayan in Malkajgiri MP constituency, and against me in Malkajgiri MLA constituency. But AAP failed miserably to damage LSP.

Now, where is AAP in Hyderabad? What is it doing for 2016 GHMC elections? AAP tried to do negative politics in 2014 elections in Hyderabad -- against JP, against me. Now, where is it?

AAP members in Hyderabad should honestly ask themselves -- was such negative politics in 2014 against JP and myself worth it? It is time they grow up.

Friday, January 1, 2016

LSP, CPI and CPM are in alliance for GHMC elections 2016

Today, LSP, CPI and CPM have announced a local-issue based alliance for GHMC elections that are slated to be held this month. The broader agenda is clean politics and the alliance is rightly called 'Alliance for Clean Politics' (ACP). It is still the early days and the modalities of seat-sharing will be announced soon.

My comments:
  1. I welcome this alliance but only for specific local body elections such as GHMC elections.
  2. Alliance in the name of clean politics is a good idea, because the Left parties and LSP have nothing else in common!
  3. It is good that the discourse is on clean politics especially when GHMC is corruption-ridden. Other parties have no proper agenda except for inciting regional feelings.
  4. This alliance between LSP and the Left parties can become a blue-print for other local body elections that will be held in other metropolitan areas in certain states of India where LSP has a presence.
  5. Demographically this alliance makes sense -- educated voters typically favor LSP, while low-wage workers typically favor the Left parties. That said, we need to check how effective the vote-transfer between these parties will be.
  6. This kind of alliance might not work for Assembly or General elections because the ideologies of LSP and the Left parties are very different. Also, the Left parties have a tendency to align with Congress during General elections whereas it is unlikely that LSP is going to align with the Congress.
At this stage, the developments are not earth-shattering. Let's observe how the situation evolves from here.