There is a myth that the Educated Civil Society, being small in numbers, can not influence the electoral outcome. Consequently majority of us are not motivated to engage with the political class and even abstain from voting because we believe that we are too small in numbers to change the ways of Indian politics. However, a closer analysis will reveal that in this age of coalition politics, with so many parties and candidates, victory margins are very small. In fact, most MPs win by margins of just few thousand votes.
Another myth is that Indian politics is decided by rural India. Hence issues relevant to the city dwellers and educated civil society are of no relevance to political parties as they do not need urban votes to come to power. The fact is that 2009 Lok Sabha will have 120 MPs (out of 543) from Urban Areas. Just concluded delimitation of constituencies has dramatically increased the number of urban constituencies, which will further grow as India urbanizes. 120 is a huge number, given the coalition politics where Mrs. Mayawati with potentially 50 MPs will have the real possibility to stake the claim for Prime Minister’s post.
We also need to note that in 2009 elections we have more than 10 Crore First Time Voters, mainly in urban areas. Compare this with the vote difference between Congress and BJP in 2004 Lok Sabha Elections – 98 Lakh.
ELECTIONs-2009 are DIFFERENT in many ways! Post 26/11 people are willing to get out and get counted. We have the real opportunity to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, this time around.
Each major party and candidate have their own committed vote bank based on ideology, caste, religion, region or language which they nurture and hold by giving sops, favours, appeasement and promises. So during the elections, what all political parties need and fear most are the SWING votes, which usually decide the winner. It is not difficult to bring together 25,000-50,000 educated people in each parliamentary constituency as SWING VOTE BANK, who will vote based on the issues of “Good Governance & Economic Development”. These ‘Educated Swing Votes’ will make every political party reach out to them and ask for their issues to be included in their agenda.
Now the question is, how do we organize these educated people, analyze & interact with major candidates/party and make an informed decision to VOTE with a real possibility of having a winner of our choice.
Use of technology will make it possible, Obama has shown it working. We are technology savvy and quick to adapt.
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