There is now a chance to think calmly about the election. Let us forget the experts who say that nothing very much changed. The 2009 election results are a milestone and will shape the politics of India for the next generation.
The Congress is not only back in harness but it has a clear idea of what it would take to entrench itself more firmly. The most important person at the Cabinet appointments was the man who wasnt being sworn in. Rahul Gandhi has realised that the Congress does not exist below the top. So he will go around the country, state by state, and build up the moribund structures. The party could once again be a genuinely national party by 2014.
The next step the Congress will take is to persuade the many fragments of itself to get back into the mother party. What is the point of the NCP? Sharad Pawar broke away on the grounds of Sonia Gandhis foreignness but actually because he fancied his chances of becoming Prime Minister. This illusion was alive till May 15, but alas, no more. The NCP has done well to get three slots but it may as well give up and join the Congress.
Next will be the Trinamool Congress. Perhaps not immediately, but after the West Bengal Assembly electionsif they win. The Congress always had a wayward Bengal branch ever since the Mahatma got Subhash Bose sacked form his presidency of the Congress. Though B.C.Roy did manage to make it behave for a while, for nearly forty years, the party has had no serious control over West Bengal. Now it can get back via Mamata.
... contd.
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