Punarnirman Dal, Lok Paritran – Update
Like “energy” (see recent comment), I have been waiting for news on how BPD, LP and others fared in the elections in UP.
Unfortunately the news is not good:
Two little known outfits — Lok P(a)ritran Party and Bharat Punarnirman Dal — which made news since they were formed by students from IIT-Kanpur could not impress voters when they drew a blank. They together had fielded 10 candidates.
While this is not entirely unexpected (see my last post on this issue, in particular, Point 2: Strategy and Tactics), it is still a pity.
Nevertheless, with the elections over and behind them, the parties must urgently get to the task of organisation building and finalising their strategy for 2009 and possibly 2014.
I think this work must have taken a back seat given that how “thin” both the parties were (are) in terms of resources and how much the elections in UP must have cost in terms of bandwidth of the top leadership team…
However, this highlights another action point, viz. the need to delegate…for instance, the websites of both the parties are “quiet” and do not appear to have been updated in the last few weeks. In my humble opinion, if the media management & website update function/roles were delegated to someone it might have been possible to present a more up-to-date picture. Perhaps this is already being addressed…
That said, I dont mean to criticise either of these parties – for they have brought hope back on the political agenda and restored my faith – at least partially – in our political system.
In the meantime, Mahesh Patil, working commitee member of BPD has got in touch with me (see his recent comment) and I have also been in touch with some other smaller political outfits. Over the next few months, I will be thinking hard on how best can we help them in their efforts.
Until then, they deserve our continued support and encouragement in fighting the battle that they have chosen.
Jai Hind.
very good article. any party which is a serious contender for power would sit down after an election rout and analyse the victory / defeat margins, unfriendly constituencies, neutral constituencies and constituencies which could have been won with alliances. This is a very crucial aspect of elections.
Psephologists ( did i spell it right) are not needed for this. Just a calculator and newspapers are enough.
I dont accuse the LP and BPD of not doing this, maybe they are already a step ahead but they should analyse how they can narrow the differences and defeat a common enemy.
Because at least in future elections, if they make their mark felt ( unlike in Tamil Nadu where they have disappeared) we might keep hoping for a miracle.
And finallly no pain…. no gain. While they suffer about their loss in elections, we the public suffer in silence about the victory of mayawatis and karunanidhis. Lets hope theres some light at the end of the tunnel.
Energy: Great comment and right on target.
The “boring” jobs such as you mention are what can make all the difference to an election campaign – unfortunately, the work is thankless and does not get the profile it deserves.
On another blog, I came acorss someone who had volunteered for this job – not sure though if his offer was taken up.
Dear Shantanu,
I appreciate for your efforts to help, support and providing direction to these young enthusiastic and energetic guys of BPD and LP. Please keep it up.
I would like to make a point here that BSP wave is not built in couple of years but this movement was running since more than 100 years and it has materialized this year. It was goal of underprivileged (Dalit) to see an underprivileged rule the country and for that reason they united this time voted in chunk to BSP. Also, the survey shows that average voting was 40% out of which 70% were franchised by underprivileged voters, whose sole aim was not to bother about quality of government but to lodge a government ruled by an underprivileged. An average of 60% voters didn’t vote which consists of the voters with vision for quality governance. Also few privileged ( Kshatriya, Vaisya, Brahman) and unprivileged (other backward classes) voted to BSP because of ant-incumbency factor.
But this is not the end for BPD and LP. They should take it as a challenge and come with more enthusiasm and energy. There is long way to go and need to mobilize the 70% of sleeping voters. I am analyzing the results of UP election 2007 and initial trend shows me that this is an unexpected result because of more than 100 years of movement and not because of social engineering as most of the media elaborate. A social engineering can’t work in couple of months, just before the election.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
UP Election Results as Follows
Constituency Candidate Name Votes Position
Kalyanpur ADITYA BAJPAI 1424 6/14
Nawabganj AJAY KUMAR SINGH 407 19/30
Rajpur AJENDRA KUMAR 424 12/16
Varanasi South AWADHESH MISHRA 233 10/14
Aryanagar OMENDRA PRATAP SINGH 1227 5/9
Ayodhya PANKAJ 349 15/15
Generalganj PUNIT NATH SHUKLA 289 6/14
Varanasi Cant RAVISHANKAR 456 12/21
The Number of Votes might miniscule, but read beyond numbers
a) An average campaign budget of Rs8000/- was used
b)In Kalyanpur and Nawabganj , we have done better than Shivsena (Shri Balasaheb Thackerays Party) candidates and in Varanasi cant we have done better than Nationalist Congress Party(Centres Agri Min Shri Sharad Pawars Party)
c)In position wise we have taken votes then some of the other local partys and independent candidates.
d)Most Imp we have managed a complete election logistics successfully.
Yes some lessons we have learnt which we are going to take into consideration in future elections to increase our electrol college and finally start winning seats and take up issues specific stands.
Regards,
Mahesh Pramod Patil
National Working Committee – Member
Bharat Punarnirman Dal
+91-932-000-9697
Dear All,
A complete Analysis of Results of UP Elections –2007 by me is now available at: http://vinay1340.wordpress.com/analysis-of-results-of-up-elections-–2007/ for your reviews and comments.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Vinaya: Thanks. I had a quick look…Good analysis. I will comment in a little more detail shortly.
On 11th of May when the whole country was celebrating the 150th anniversary of first freedom struggle, a bunch of youths from youth for equality an organisation of Youth opposing reservation policy of Indian government from last one year indicated formation of new political outfit more likely MERA Bharat Saman. This new development shows enthusiasm of youths who are no more spectator of system but they are ready to take responsiblity to change the whole system.
I have not heard much about PND but one thing is common in approach of youth for equality or PND that both are not happy with exisiting system and they are ready to work for the change of system. But any vision neads good programme with a team to propagate about this vision and programme. To get public support these organisations needs comprehensive study of Indian social, political, economic structure and for this they need good researchers first.
India a country of diversity. It has lot of groups, lot of varieties and lot of interest and taste. First of all these organisations need to catch the dynamics of soicety, parameters of society and then try to adjust their programme with that dynamism. Merely a programme , vision or only organisation could not work effectively unless dynammism of soicety is caught up.
For an example RSS has big organisation with grass root level but they were unable to catch the dynamics of soicety in Uttar Pradesh and same was true with congress, because community itself comeout to negotiate powere sharing and Brahmins and Dalits jointly made a bloc and they did not waited for any leader to come out to negotiate on behalf of them. BSP analysed the situation and changed its gear and made a soical alliance with those forwards whom once she had abused. RSS was unable to acess the situation because they were relying much on strenght of their organisation rather than studying the dynamics of society.
Any group or organisation in near future could not succeed unless it has strong network of information to gross roort level and team of researchers .
Dear all,
Good news is that government of UP has started working on recommendations for reform cited at http://vinay1340.wordpress.com/. Please see at http://vinay1340.wordpress.com/actions-taken-by-government-of-up-–-2007/
for details.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Amitabh, your ocnclusion is very good: “Any group or organisation in near future could not succeed unless it has strong network of information to gross roort level and team of researchers” – I cannot agree more…this is the need of the moment…
Vinay,
That is very good news indeed…Pl. keep up the good work.
Dear Shantanu,
Thank you for encouragements.
Dear Readers,
We are looking for people like you and need to support us on our mission to “remove corruption, save India”. Just, we need you to look for the people involved in corruption and try to bring them to law. Also, you may want to spread this word to our fellow Indians to check the corruption and find ways to punish them with help of authorities.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya