'Bus' ab bas...

29th May 2014 - This day was a memorable day for any Hyderabadi private vehicle driver. As he seldom faced any challenged (apart from bad road conditions - by default) thanks to Telangana bandh by most patriotic Telangana party. While bandh seemed to be quite effective as party is set to step into governance mode in less than a week's time; what made bandh more pleasant was absence of RTC buses from road. This gave auto-rickshaw drivers to have more commanding drives and gave a break to the 'brakes' of 2/4-wheelers. The day marked use of good accelerator on a Hyderabadi road which is quite amazing unless you're a core old city resident!
Places like Lakdi ka Pul, Mehdipatnam wore a deserted look! Near Mehdipatnam I could feel grin on my bike when she'd have seen a fleet of buses standing idle in corner of road. My bike must be feeling so happy that there will be less over taking job at hand today... Much satisfying was organized Lakdi ka Pul junction where our Hyderabad Kings err Bus drivers stop their jets in middle of the road even knowing that fact that bus-stop has been moved to corner due to on-going Metro work. It cares them little even if they stop buses in middle of road, rightly so "government ka maal jo hai"...
Anyway yesterday marked a pleasant day for most of Hyderabadi drivers but won't have been such better day for people who commute by buses daily! :( Spare a thought for people who have no means other than this-economical-government-transport. Anyway, let's hope such days will be lesser as the party famous for 'bandhs' is going to form it's first government soon. [Note: We're not talking about Delhi here.. :P]
Concluding with a wish that we continue to have RTC buses on road but more educated and responsible RTC drivers will help us the most! And a prayer that 'Hyderabad Metro' project go live soon so that we have lesser traffic, better commuting, greener city and happier Hyderabadi!

India General Elections 2014 - My Analysis

It's been a week since May 16 the day which decided fate of thousands of politicians from India. There were lucky 543 who got a ticket to Indian Temple of Democracy, The Parliament!

In many ways these elections have been phenomenal be it land-slide victory of BJP led NDA or complete rout of Congress. There are many ways to look at the results of May16; here it goes my-view...

Election summary starts with emphatic numbers from BJP by getting absolute majority on their own (Only Chanakya could have predicted that ;) ) They swept all major states from UP, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Gujrat etc. On the other hand is a very sorry story for Congress which got so less seats in number that they can't even be 'Principle Opposition' in Parliament (< 10% of total).

Following anlaysis breaks down to regional politics:

Source of picture: http://www.mapsofindia.com/parliamentaryconstituencies/maps-election-2014/india-parliamentary-result.jpg

Going geographically from South, Amma showed us why she's *Boss*... AIADMK wiped DMK from Tamil Nadu though they went alone this election. Both the development work which Amma is doing and corruption allegations on DMK paved way for almost 40 MPs from AIADMK to Parliament. But even though being in such big numbers from a regional party they will sit in opossition!

Kerala with West Bengal were the states that went again the wave of this General Elections, called "Modi-wave". While Kerala didn't give much ground to BJP, WB's Mamata di showed us why she's a force to reckon with. She raised many eye-brows by winning 30+ MP seats fighting anti-incumbancy.

Another state (mine) which was not so "Modi-fied" was Andhra Pradesh (Telangana + Seemandhra). In AP Congress was killed twice with understandable Seemandhra loss and shocking rejection in Telangana! Telugu people chose Naidu as their CM, giving so so space to YSR's Jagan. But in Telangana Congress got a drubbing with TRS attaining majority (60+ out of 119) on its own. Congress were riding high on Telangana-sentiment showing how instrumental Sonia-amma was in Telangana state creation. But lack of regional face costed high for the party which reduced to few numbers. Where MIM was one of few regional parties that survived India's Modi-fication and managed to hold their 7 seats with a default Sansand-ratna MP from my city (Hyderabad).

Moving ahead one astonishing point for me was Yeddyurappa winning MP seat in Karnataka. Wasn't it a dent in BJP's anti-corruption movement when they inducted him back in BJP? But no one questions them now as he has got BJP a MP seat! Well.. Is for you to decide whether it was "horses for courses" move or dual-faced-BJP!

Talking about Orissa, BJD survived and held most of their seats in state but couldn't stop BJP of 'bhauni' (start-up) in Orissa. With almost two-dozen MPs Biju Patnaik looks all set for a hand-shake with TMC & AIADMK to stop Congress from grabbing "Opposition" position in Parliament.

Going ahead in north it was all saffron surge!!! Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh were all clean-sweeped! UP being biggest surprise of this election. Man-of-the-Elections-2014 Amit Shah, UP State Secretary's plans were very rightly placed yielding mind-boggling numbers for BJP in UP (70+ out of 80). In my opinion making Modi stand for Varanasi seat was The Move of Elections-2014 taking into consideration that (i) It impacts complete UP (ii) Varanasi goes to elections in the last phase of polling, therefore in news for complete election phases (iii) Timings of Modi's nomination filing for Varansi seat on a polling day for other state. All this making it a super-move! SP and BSP were decimated with a big zerO for BSP and singule digit for SP. No questions why Akhilesh Yadav is on rage and dissolved his State Affairs Committee.. But to my surprise he holds on to his position! Wow, what a justice with party-workers...!
Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chauhan delivered it once again after state elections last year leaving almost no room for Congress. Gujrat was swept by their CM's PM ambitions and support was evident with first rally of Modi in Ahmedabad which came post-election-results!

Talking about Delhi, anger of AK-47 resignation from CM post was evident in Delhi results, with BJP bagging all 7 seats. AK has now got work cut out to regain people's faith. My wishes with him to regain trust of Delhi! Anyway, Punjab served as face-saver for AAP with 3 MP seats giving something to cheer AAP volunteers.

In north-most part J&K, Omar Abdullah's National Congress was humiliated. His father Farooq Abdullah lost first election of his life causing celebrations in PDP's camp. Mufti family is now back again in news!!

Tarun Gogoi's resignation from Assam CM post was the news from North-east part of country. First casualty that Congress had post-election-results-declaration. Though with latest update of Sonia Gandhi not accepting his resignation means this episode is far from over!

Well, above was my brain-map of General Elections 2014 which "Modi-fied" India! Please forgive if you encounter figures/data is wrong anywhere courtesy my fading memory.. ;)

Conclusion & Expectation from "Mister Prime Minister":
Being not-a-fan of Modi I'll take in-charge as his critic during his tenure as PM. But surely I'll not forget to applaud him if he walks the talk! He has given good signs by calling all SAARC state heads for his swearing-in ceremony on 26th May. May be it is a diplomatic move to reply Nawaz Sharif's invitation to Modi to visit Pakistan but it'll go down as a promising beginning in my view. As for next 5 years I'd like to see that Narendra Modi of few-month-old who talks about development, good governance, anti-corruption and bringing black money back. Quite interested to see his promises coming true specially about black money which BJP has asked time for some days in power!
If Modi does even does half of what he has promised, I'll be the one rooting for his second tenure provided we never see Modi of 2002 again!

Thanks all for patient reading, would like to hear from you if you've any bouquets or brick-bats for me.. :D