Sunday, June 9, 2013

General Elections 2014: BJP has started drawing its guns, Congress needs to wake up

General Election 2014 is less than one year away.

Today, BJP President Rajnath Singh has formally launched BJP's election preparations by announcing Narendra Modi's name as the Chairman of the party's Election Campaign. This decision was taken at the BJP conclave at Goa, where most senior BJP leaders where present, except BJP veteran L. K. Advani.

The way things are evolving It is being (safely) assumed that Narendra Modi will be the next Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is also being popularly assumed that his Congress rival in the race to PM house will be Rahul Gandhi.


One thing is obvious that the amount of media time and attention Narendra Modi is getting is much much more than what Rahul Gandhi is getting.  Let us see how the media and voters perceive these two.

Media Presentation of Narendra Modi

Most of the time when the media talks of Narendra Modi, he generally gets a positive reference as next Prime Minister of India -
  • whether the NDA alliance partners will accept him as the NDA candidate for Prime Minister,
  • whether he will be a good prime minister,
  • what his agenda will be as a prime minister,
I am implying that the voters hear about Narendra Modi as if he is winning or he has won.

Media Presentation of Rahul Gandhi


On the other hand, most media reporting about Rahul Gandhi is not so positive. Most of the discussion about Congress is about whether the Congress will be able to complete its current tenure. Sometimes these media discussions are to the tune of how badly Rahul Gandhi will lose.

Media coverage being received by the Congress party is not going in favor of Rahul Gandhi, especially looking at the way things have developed around the Congress led UPA government at the helm of India, the scams, denial to enact strict anti-corruption laws, policy and decision paralysis, et al

The way some senior Congress leaders react in front of the camera makes me feel that the party has accepted that it will not be returning to power in the 2014.

The Candidates and The Media

Besides this, Narendra Modi has himself ensured that he gets regular media coverage - be it his speech in front of student in some college, be it his video address to American student, be his visits to Delhi, Bihar, the coverage of the BJP conclave at Goa, etc.

Whereas Rahul Gandhi, I feel, has made a conscious effort to keep himself away from the media and limelight. Rahul Gandhi is seldom seen in the media, and further he seldom addresses the people (via the media cameras and pens).

In short, I think that BJP is way ahead in the preparedness for General Election 2014. The Congress party has tighten its belt and change the negative perception that is filtering through to the voters.

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