What went wrong? Important Lessons from the Assembly Election 2018

What went wrong?

Important Lessons from the Assembly Election 2018

By:

Vijay Sardana

Disclaimer: Views are personal
Twitter : @vijaysardana

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I am fortunate that I travel a lot and get chance to interact with all sections of society across the cities and societies from small farmers to power centers in global forums. Interaction gives a lot of insight about how and what they think and reason their-off.

I wrote my learning after every election. Let me continue to share the same. For your benefit, you may search the links of all of them on the same blog.

Now, the biggest question is why BJP lost the election in all 5 states?

Imagine a party which is power at center with full majority, dominating both houses of parliament, managing almost 20 states managing RBI, CBI and ED, offices in every district of India, most important having a solid backing of largest cadre based network of RSS and most effective orator in the political system today, managing and controlling all source of communication and media channels, getting largest corporate funding among all the political parties in the country, tight grip of bureaucracy, polling crowd in political rally and NRI rallies in abroad and no meaningful political opposition, with all this (nothing can be better than this for any political leader) if the same party under the same leadership lose elections in all the 5 states, this definitely says something great about democratic values and political maturity of illiterate people suffering from unemployment, poverty, and hunger.

It is the high time all thinkers and planners of this country, those who claim they understand the political pulse of India and understand what India needs must go back to basics and start unlearning about India and people of India and must take a refreshers course to learn what India thinks and expects from the political leaders.

May political experts comment, it is anti-incumbency after 15 years. The question is, are people fed-up with the decent work done by the ruling party and leaders? Or people are fed-up with the faces of political leaders ruling the government?

What is anti-incumbency – let us go deeper into it.

In my view, a few messages are clear, which I observed during my visits to these states in the last few months and weeks, and during my interactions with local people in various walks of life.

Let me share what I understood from what people were saying:

1.        People want to see tangible results on the ground, not any assurances and hope from anyone.

2.        People want accountability of the present rulers and not about what was the mistake done in the history of India and who did what in the last 70 years.

3.        They want the result from people those who were voted to power to deliver results and not excuses. Leaders must display report card of their performance which people can correlate in their life. If soil health card is made and crop insurance is done, but income has not improved, it has no meaning to them. If MSP is announced but at the time of sale of the crop, farmers get less price, this sends negative message.

4.        People want the positive message to feel happy and want hope in life when they go back home, they are not keen to carry a negative criticism of opposition. This doesn’t add any value to their life.

5.        People want to know your plan and agenda not what others are doing wrong. Without any tangible plan for them, they have no reason to vote.

6.        Political leaders mainly in power generally surrounded by sycophants and get only filtered information. This only colours their own thinking but also frustrate their own supporters because they lose access to communication to power centers. They feel demotivated and demoralized if they are side-lined by the same people when they came to power. This is sending a negative message throughout the organisation mainly cadre.

7.        When leaders come to power they assume that cadre and their followers will remain committed to them even if they don’t care for grass root workers. This is a big mistake. The fact is cadre want they should also feel empowered not neglected.

8.        Too much exposure in media also brings staleness and fatigue. Bollywood or politics both must be careful about this.

9.        Lack of desire to build the second line also kills the enthusiasm in aspiring leaders and they only do the minimum to remain relevant. If the leader is not keen to share the credit for success with honesty (not just lip service) this kill the spirit of winning in the organisation.

10.  Imposing leaders from the outside and ignoring the local leaders for power send a message of hopelessness. This takes away the enthusiasm from local leadership because they see no hope for themselves. If local leaders’ leader has no hope to become Chief Minister, will he work hard to get the favorable results?

11.  Once people are getting what they want in daily life, then they are keen to have a lecture on global politics and trade issues, not before that.

12. Corruption is a critical issue if people don’t face any corrupt department or officer in their daily life and if people trust in the political system. When people feel all political parties and systems are corrupt, the lecture on corruption makes no sense. Definitely it is not an election agenda even in present government, because suffering of common man due to corruption continues.

13.  Nowadays people don’t change their mind so easily once they form their mind to vote for a particulate party. The outcome of the assembly election was visible about 6 months in advance. This will impact the 2019 elects as well.

14.  Once the credibility of leadership comes under a question mark, every announcement made by leaders consider as a political gimmick. Every negative or positive incidence is considered as a political ploy and people detach from those activities or incidences.

15.  Emotional issues are important but they also follow the “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. Unfortunately, political leaders start in the reverse direction and ends-up making a mess of their own agenda. Political parties must understand these things when they plan their manifesto.

16. Arrogance in politics and in business can be fatal. No one is king in democracy, it a responsibility given by people to serve, not to claim this as right because elections will come and you have to provide evidence for performances which are visible to public.

17. According to my experience with electronic and print media, most spokespersons and experts talk the facts only off the camera, not on the camera. In public, people speak what is politically and socially acceptable on that day. This sends wrong message to public outside and leaders. Leaders must keep their communication channel open to get uninterrupted and honest signals about the ground reality. This communication problem is very common in business and politics, that is very often corrective action is not visible on time and government and business fail.

Hopefully before 2019 general elections, we may see some more developments. Please note, core voters constituency remains intact, but floating votes decide which way the election outcome will emerge. It will be important to see what action will be taken in coming days to galvanize the support from floating votes.

YOU are free to disagree with me and my observations, but do let me know your views and please do share your analysis on this important development.

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