In 2007, voters in Uttar Pradesh, even upper castes, were not willing to vote a government that might have brought back the instability of BJP’s Ramjanambhoomi days. So security, law and order, end to goonda raj were now the equivalent of bijli, sadak, pani.

• While it is true that the three other contestants also moved closer to the centre as the campaign progressed, they were still trying to revive the magic of old vote banks. Congress was still hoping to get the Muslims back — that is why Rahul was persuaded to open the campaign with Babri, and paid a much publicised visit to Deoband. BJP, similarly, was trashing the Muslims and suggesting — not always subtly — that the state’s law and order problems had something to do with Mulayam’s pro-minority politics, in the hope of reviving a Hindu wave. Mulayam’s campaign, too, was ultimately directed at his traditional vote banks, Muslims and Yadavs. The truth is, he mostly retained it and yet got wiped out.

All three missed a central point, the pivot around which the new politics of India is being built. That the days of narrow, vote-bank politics are now over. You can no longer secure 25-27 per cent vote in a fractured polity and rule a state. You now need to broaden your agenda, invite, entice, and include others too. Because it is logical that a fast-developing, fast-urbanising society should also evolve a more cosmopolitan outlook. It is tired of divisive agendas, of being taken for granted.

... contd.