Integrity, honesty and above all credibility of the top leader of a political party are what drive voters. Even if there is one or two leaders who are not so good, political parties can still do well in elections if the top leader is seen as “perfect,” just like what happened with Narendra Modi in the recent Indian Lok Sabha elections, an Indian researcher said.
Sanjay Kumar, director of Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, made these observations while talking to the Dhaka Tribune exclusively after a discussion at the office of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Dhaka yesterday.
He said: “Leadership is already a big issue in Bangladesh. It is not like what it is in India. If elections were conducted on the basis of two leaders and three leaders, it is about how credible the leaders are. In India, people raised questions about BJP’s ministers, but they also said Modi is perfect. He is a man who makes the decisions...works hard...he is honest.”
Sanjay also said just doing good work was not enough in today’s context, political parties must also know how to publicise them.
“The big message is all about how you can send your messages to the voters. That is a strategy a party should adopt rather than getting into criticising others. Congress did some good works but they failed to send those messages to the voters. They initiated some good projects but the message did not reach the people,” he said.
At the discussion titled “Election with a difference: Analysing the verdict of Lok Sabha Election 2014,” Sanjay gave a presentation on the Indian election.
He observed that the 2014 elections not only resulted in change of government, but also marked some new challenges in Indian electoral politics.
The Delhi-based research organisation found in a survey that dissatisfaction with the Congress-led UPA government at the centre continued to rise during the electioneering stage. Apart from Modi’s persona, corruption and price hike of essentials also contributed to anti-incumbency sentiment in which Media played a big role.
“Intense or aggressive campaign in a sense is the key component in winning election and what matters is how a party reaches to its voters or how a party sends its message to people,” the Indian think tank said in the survey.
It said if there was a level playing field in polls campaign, if Congress and BJP campaigned honestly and if there was some formal platform to campaign, then Congress would not have done so badly and BJP would not have done so well in the election.
The survey also found that 27% voters would have changed votes if Modi was not a prime minister candidate. The upper castes, some backward classes, dalits and indigenous communities also voted in good number for BJP.
Most interestingly, Modi was popular among the young voters aged between 18-22, the survey said.
Sanjay also pointed out some features of the election that made it unique. Turnout reached an all time high of 66.4%, BJP became first non-Congress party to get majority with 283 seats and also the first party to get single majority in 30 years.
CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan, distinguished fellows Rounaq Jahan and Debapriya Bhattacharya, BNP leaders Osman Farruk and Inam Ahmed Chowdhury, Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar and economist MM Akash were present at the discussion.
