Is Congress the Only Option?

We are less than three years away from General Elections 2014. And more than sven years after the UPA came to power in 2004 , it seems that mantra of "Congress ka haath, Aam Aadmi ke saath" is no longer refulgant. But in a parliamentary democracy , the opposition and its strength is as much of a presursor , as anti-incumbency. And this is what makes us wonder... IS CONGRESS THE ONLY OPTION?


The main opposition force in this country happens to be the NDA. And its performance as the principal opposition party has been disappointing to say the least. But lets leave the qualitative analysis for some other day. Rather , lets have a psephological analysis in this post.

Starting from the north , BJP looks vulnerable in Haryana and it has never performed well in Jammu and Kashmir. In the other states though , it will give a tough fight to the Congress.


The Western and the Centre states do not seem to be a problem , atleast till Narendra Modi is at the helm in Gujarat. But Maharastra is fast becoming a sinking ship for the NDA. Its alliance partner Shiv Sena looks a vague form of itself , and it is fast being obscured by Raj Thackeray's MNS. The BJP , on the other hand , suffers from internal conflict and poor organisational management. All this , even after more than a decade of Congress-NCP rule.

The East seems to be an opportunity lost for the BJP. With no major allies in West Bengal and Orissa , the BJP would draw a null from more than 60 seats in these two states. The decision to go alone in the recently concluded Assam polls has not yielded desirable results , and even a coalition with the AGP seems to be a weak force when compared to the Congress.

But the real problem lies down South. Apart from Karnataka , the BJP has nothing to show for as far as electoral arithmetic is concerned. With no major allies in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh , its credentials as a national party becomes dubious. Add Kerala to the whole scenario, and we have got around 100 Lok Sabha seats where even the mere presence of the NDA is debatable.

All these accumulate to roughly 180 seats , which is close to one-third of the Lok Sabha. And to add to the woes of the NDA , it is locked in a four way battle in Uttar Pradesh , which the is the most important state , as far as the road to Delhi is concerned. Even if we refrain from speculating about the purmutations and possibilities in Uttar Pradesh , its difficult to see the NDA bringing home the bacon in 2014 in its present form.


There might be a lot of anger and discontent with the performance of this Manmohan Singh led UPA Government , but the people of this country need a viable option to effect any change. In a parliamentary democracy , numbers matter as much as policies. And despite the pathetic performance of this government , the Numbers tell a different tale.

Come 2014, we might end up with only one option for a stable government which would last its whole term. And that option might turn out to be The Congress, again!.Wake up NDA!