This is a crucial change in the way the ‘poor’ see themselves. It is to the credit of the Congress party that it has caught this signal. It would do well to remember that it was during the BJP administration that interest rates fell and this constituency was created; however, the BJP could not milk it. The Congress will have to remember this when over the next 10 months, nine states hit the election trail. For, among larger states, with the humiliating losses of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh behind it, the Congress is negotiating Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan from a position of weakness. If the BJP could make mass development, among many other things, a mainstream issue in Gujarat and HP, perhaps the Congress could do the same with mass homeownership.

gautam.chikermane@expressindia.com