Indian Elections 2009

Dr. Manmohan Singh took oath today as the PM for the second time. He had taken oath as the PM for the first time on the same date, May 22, five years back.

 In addition to Dr. Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee, S M Krishna, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar Shinde, Veerappa Moily, S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B K Handique, Anand Sharma and C P Joshi were sworn in as cabinet ministers.

• Pics: New Team Manmohan , NDTV.com, May 22 2009

There is going to be a continuity with most of the ministries being given to the incumbents like Pranab Mukherjee who will get Finance, P. Chidambaram getting Home, Sharad Pawar getting agriculture. It is expected that Mamta Banerjee will take over as the new railways minister. In addition, Trinamool Congress will get 6 Minister of State berths.

The negotiations between Congress and DMK on the number of cabinet seats to be given to them has not been resolved and National Conference has to still get it’s share. So there is expectation that the cabinet will be further expanded to accomodate these two allies.

May 22nd, 2009 | Tags: Dr. Manmohan Singh, UPA government, UPA/Congress | Category: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress | Comments (1)

Flush with the success of the Lok Sabha elections, the four pre-poll allies of the Congress have begin negotiating for their share of the pie.

• UPA allies battle for their share of the spoils, Hindustan Times, May 20 2009

The DMK has already asked for seven cabinet positions. I guess their logic is that if they ask for seven, they will get five.

• DMK demands 7 cabinet berths; meeting with Pranab inconclusive, Indian Express, May 20 2009

Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference has also expressed a desire for a cabinet post for the party (read him).

Mamta Banerjee has not yet expressed a desire to join the cabinet in Delhi, claiming to be concentrating on the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal in 2011. As expected, the party has called for pre-poning the elections.

• Mamata yet to take decision on joining UPA cabinet, Indian Express, May 20 2009

NCP has been quiet so far …

May 20th, 2009 | Tags: allies, DMK, National Conference, NCP, Trinamool Congress, UPA government, UPA/Congress | Category: DMK, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, National Conference, Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Comments (1)

Dr. Manmohan Singh has become the Prime Minister for the second consecutive term. He was appointed as the PM by the victorious UPA alliance. UPA was also able to show support of 322 MPs in the letter it presented to the President Pratibha Patil. Given this strong show of support, the President has not asked the prime minister to prove his strength in the house.

• Manmohan gets Presidential nod for second term as PM, Indian Express, May 20 2009
• Manmohan Singh appointed Prime Minister, Times of India, May 20 2009

The new PM will be sworn in on Friday, May 22.

May 20th, 2009 | Tags: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Election Results, UPA government, UPA/Congress | Category: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Indian Politics, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress | Comments (1)

With 261 seats in it’s bag, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is confident of getting support of 11 additional MPs to cross the magic number of 272 needed for a majority in the parliament. Speculation is rife in main stream media that the parties that constituted the fourth front (RJD,SP and LJP) will not be invited to support the UPA government; instead the UPA will rely on like-minded independents and smaller parties to make up for the shortfall.

Apart from the Congress party that won 206 seats on it’s own, the UPA consists of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, M. Karunanidhi’s DMK, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference, who won the remaining 55. Leaders of these four parties are expected to be part of the new cabinet. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also expected to join the cabinet.

The PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will give his resignation to the President on Monday who will ask him to continue as the interim-PM. The Election Commission will present the list of successful Lok sabha candidates to President Pratibha Patil on Monday evening.

Dr. Manmohan Singh is expected to be sworn in as the PM either on 20 or 22 May 2009.

May 17th, 2009 | Tags: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha elections, lok sabha results, UPA/Congress | Category: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Election Results, Elections, Indian Politics, National Conference, Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Comments (1)

News Update : YSR Reddy sworn in as the Chief Minister on Andhra Pradesh for the second consecutive term on Wednesday, May 20 2009

The Congress has managed to win the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections winning 155 of the 294 seats in the state. The main opposition party, TDP, gave a good fight this election leading/winning around 100 seats, but it wasn’t enough to remove the incumbent government of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

• Andhra Assembly polls: YSR all set to lead second term, Indian Express, May 16 2009
• Chiranjeevi’s glamour fails to impress voters, Economic Times, May 16 2009

In another feather in Congress’ cap, they have also managed to win 33 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

May 16th, 2009 | Tags: Andhra Pradesh, Election Results, State Assembly Elections | Category: Andhra Pradesh, Election Results, Elections, Indian Politics, UPA/Congress | Comments (4)

Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi said today that he was sure of left’s support of Congress PM after the elections. This indicates intense negotiations behind closed doors between the Congress and the left parties.

• Rahul Gandhi reaches out to Left to form Govt after polls, Hindustan Times, May 5 2009
• Rahul woos Left, confident of their support for Manmohan, Indian Express, May 5 2009
• Bengal CPI(M) declines to comment on Rahul’s statement. The Hindu, May 5 2009

It could also mean that Manmohan Singh will step down as PM and Rahul Gandhi will take over. The left parties were opposed to Manmohan Singh specially his foreign policies (like the Nuclear treaty with the US) Congress is hopeful that the left front will be fine with Rahul Gandhi as the PM.

This public announcement takes us back to the question we raised in one of our previous post - If Trinamool Congress and Congress are allies and Left parties support Congress; then jTrinamool and Left parties allies or adversarie

May 5th, 2009 | Tags: Communist Parties, Dr. Manmohan Singh, post-poll alliance, Rahul Gandhi, UPA/Congress | Category: Communist Parties, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, Rahul Gandhi, Third Front, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Leave a comment

Past appears to have caught up with the two main national parties. The Bofors case and the Godhra/Gujarat riots were in news again this week embarrassing leaders of the two parties. In the former case, all charges were dismissed by CBI against a key accused Mr. Quattrochi.

• Bofors allegations are a complete lie: Rahul, Times of India, ‎Apr 25, 2009‎
• The Q factor and Indian polity, IBNLive, Apr 30 2009

In the later case, the Supreme court instructed the Special Investigations Team looking into the Gujarat riots to further investigate the role of Mr. Narendra Modi in these riots.

• Willing to go to jail, will cooperate in probe: Modi, Hindustan Times, Apr 28 2009
• SC orders probe into Modi’s role in post-Godhra riots, Financial Express, Apr 28 2009

While the two parties try damage control by accusing each other of dirty politics, it is a reminder again to the voters that Congress was guilty of corruption and BJP of instigating riots instead of controlling them.

• Farewell gift to nation-in-law… PM, Sonia guilty, says BJP, Indian Express, Apr 28, 2009‎
• Cong behind CBI clean chit to Quattrocchi, says Maya, Times of India, Apr 28, 2009‎

April 29th, 2009 | Tags: Godhra, Narendra Modi, NDA/BJP, Sonia Gandhi, UPA/Congress | Category: Gujarat, Indian Politics, NDA/BJP, Narendra Modi, UPA/Congress | Leave a comment

Flip-flopping has become the hallmark of this election. Politicians are contradicting themselves everyday and the final coalition structure remains a mystery for all - the media and the voters alike.

The latest to flip-flop are the Left parties and the Congress who hinted yesterday that they could form a coalition post the results.

• Congress-Left could come together after polls, Reuters India, Apr 14, 2009

As you will recall, the left parties were part of the UPA government till they fell out with the Congress on the nuclear agreement with the US. They forced the Manmohan Singh government to go for a confidence vote in the parliament. After breaking-up with the UPA, the Left parties had striven to set up the Third Front as an alternate to the UPA and NDA coalitions. They had also promoted Ms. Mayawati, the leader of BSP, as their PM candidate.

Also, the Congress has formed an alliance with the Trinamool Congress and are sharing seats in West Bengal. Trinamool is directly fighting with the left parties in West Bengal. So if Congress also forma an alliance with the left parties, then by inductive logic, are Trinamool Congress and Left parties allies in West Bengal ?

April 15th, 2009 | Tags: Communist Parties, Lok Sabha elections, Political alliance, UPA/Congress | Category: Communist Parties, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, Indian Politics, Third Front, UPA/Congress | Leave a comment

While the Congress has “officially” denied that Rahul Gandhi will be their PM candidate instead of Mr. Manmohan Singh, the sound bites have been the opposite in the past few days. Top Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh himself, have made statements promoting Rahul Gandhi as the future PM.

• Rahul has all qualities to be a good PM: Manmohan, Hindustan Times, Apr 13 2009
• We view Rahul Gandhi as future PM: Digvijay, Business Standard, Apr 13 2009
• Rahul’s got what it takes to be a PM: Priyanka Gandhi, Economic Times, Apr 13 2009
• Priyanka not averse to joining politics, says Rahul can be PM, Press Trust of India, ‎Apr 12, 2009

It appears that Congress is fishing for public reaction to Rahul Gandhi becoming the next PM should the UPA win the elections. Congress is treading softly this time in promoting Rahul Gandhi, given the strong negative public reaction in the last election to the prospect of Sonia Gandhi becoming the PM.

It is our analysis that Congress will let the confusion to prevail over who will actually be their PM candidate - Manmohan Singh or Rahul Gandhi. But don’t be surprised if Rahul becomes the PM if UPA wins handsomely this summer.  And of course, Dr. Singh will get the brickbats should the UPA fail to do so.

April 13th, 2009 | Tags: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, UPA/Congress | Category: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, Indian Politics, Rahul Gandhi, UPA/Congress | Comments (6)