The Hindu Business Line : Vantage BJP

SO, India's voters will never have it so good, what with party leaders and cadres from the Prime Minister down wooing and courting them by taking recourse to every method and means in the coming months.

The NDA Government has cleverly taken time by the forelock by announcing Rs 12,000 crore worth of sops and props well before the announcement of the decision to advance the poll. Thereby, it has scored a double hit: The Government's largesse escapes the wrath of the EC; at the same time, it must have propitiated the traders, the business persons and generally the middle class, including the senior citizens — on whose votes the BJP heavily leans — so as to predispose them in its favour.

It is hard to fault the BJP National Executive for the only decision that it could have taken in the circumstances. It is only natural for it to yield to the temptation to cash in on the splash it was able to make in elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh State Assemblies. Whatever the Congress and the opposition parties might say, the country is certainly in an expectantly buoyant mood, bordering on euphoria, in respect of the economy. All the internal and external fundamentals point to a more prosperous era. The only spin that the Congress spokespersons, unable to deny the "feel good" or "feel great" factor, are putting on it is that it is after all the culmination of their own past policies. What they forget is that in the electoral race it is the impact of the immediate present that decides the winner, and not any logical analysis of how it might have come about.

Any objective student of politics, whether in India or the rest of the world, cannot but be impressed by the deft and, in the event, successful balancing act that the BJP has been able to perform for the full tenure of five years by keeping a medley of 22 parties of different shapes and hues in a coalition that has brought laurels to the country by innovatively and boldly conceived domestic and foreign policies.

I doubt whether there is any in this country or abroad who will not readily give credit for the success story that India is becoming to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

As of now, all odds are on BJP's side and its target of winning 300 seats on its own cannot be dismissed as a pipe-dream. Its rivals have an uphill task before them. They will be foolish were they to plan their campaign around the communal vs. secular credo. It has become stale and obsolete.

The electoral battle this time is going to be all about achievements and capabilities, and in these the BJP has demonstrated an edge and may well be set to reap the dividends.