India 2019: Some Projections

Scenario 1: The BJP led alliance falls short of the halfway mark and quickly pulls in a few regional parties to form a majority. This was the talk of the town yesterday.

Scenario 2: The BJP improves on its tally from 2014. This might not be likely.

Scenario 3: The BJP does less well than in 2014 but still manages to cross the majority mark and forms another government for five years.

Scenario 4: The arithmetic is tri-polar: the BJP led alliance, the Congress-led alliance which is much smaller, and the non-BJP, non-Congress Federal Front alliance which asks the Congress for outside support to form a government.

Right now scenario one seems to be in the air. People are talking about it. But nobody knows for sure.

Somebody like the Orissa chief minister Patnayak might be willing to support the BJP led alliance in the case the need arises.

Laloo Should Be Brought Back As Railway Minister

Image via Wikipedia

Lalu Prasad Yadav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laloo is never going to be Prime Minister. Now we know that. It is Manmohan, and then it will be Rahul's turn after Manmohan is done with it. And granted Laloo has only four MPs under his belt now from the 24 he used to have. But he was the best railway minister in the world. And he should be brought back as railway minister. And the UPA does not garner a majority on its own. And if ever the Congress might need to reach out to the Left down the line, Laloo would be the best middle man they could find. It was Laloo Yadav who saved the Manmohan Singh government when the Left threatened to pull away on the nuclear deal issue.

Laloo should be brought back as railway minister primarily for his stellar performance over the past five years as railway minister. That is the number one reason. But it also makes parliamentary arithmetic sense.

If Manmohan Singh was among the top five heads of state in the world over the last five years, Laloo was the very best railway minister in the world. That is reason enough to bring him back.

The BJP is still the Congress Party's number one rival, and there is no bigger opponent than Laloo that the BJP has. Noone else plays the game better.

Manmohan Gave China Like Growth To India

Coalition	Total	Party	Seats
United Progressive Alliance	262	Indian National Congress	206
		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	18
		Nationalist Congress Party	9
		Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	2
		All India Trinamool Congress	19
		Republican Party of India (Athvale)	0
		Jammu and Kashmir National Conference	3
		Assam United Democratic Front	1
		Kerala Congress (M)	1
		Muslim League Kerala State Committee	2
		All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen	1
National Democratic Alliance	158	Bharatiya Janata Party	116
		Janata Dal (United)	20
		Shiv Sena	11
		Shiromani Akali Dal	4
		Indian National Lok Dal	0
		Asam Gana Parishad	1
		Rashtriya Lok Dal	5
		Nagaland People's Front	1
Third Front	76	Communist Party of India	4
		Communist Party of India (Marxist)	16
		Revolutionary Socialist Party	2
		All India Forward Bloc	2
		Bahujan Samaj Party	21
		AIADMK	9
		Biju Janata Dal	14
		Telugu Desam Party	6
		Telangana Rashtra Samithi	2
Fourth Front	27	Samajwadi Party	23
		Rashtriya Janata Dal	4
		Lok Jan Shakti Party	0
		Praja Rajyam Party	0
Main Other Parties	5	Pattali Makkal Katchi	0
		Janata Dal (Secular)	3
		Haryana Janahit Party	1
		Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	1
		Janhit Congress Party	0

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