Actually, there is a certainty in this election.

As the results trickle in on Saturday, and as everyone gets down to complicated political sums, players across the political and ideological divide will be swallowing, gulping, sometimes whole, words they used for each other not so long ago.

To tide over the awkwardness of this moment, they will bank on our frayed attention spans in a very long election, and our always-short memories. Some will unfurl the flag of “secularism” as they court unlikely allies and sworn enemies. Others will try to exhume “anti-Congressism”. Still others will insist they are guided only by the interests of their state.

But most of all, they will seek shelter in that term that has never loomed as large over any election as it does over this one. In this election, “post poll” is that space for manoeuvre that is virtually independent of “pre-poll”. The “post poll” in this election has audaciously, flagrantly struck out on its own, announcing its secession from all that has gone before.

Here’s a selection from who said what about whom. Who will eat which words will depend on what happens in the first few hours tomorrow.

• February, 2009: “No, no BJP. Never. (There is) no question. We have no relations with BJP,” said Chandrababu Naidu when asked if he will support the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the event of the saffron party forming the government after the Lok Sabha polls. “No, no. Not even after polls,” he said. Naidu’s TDP was a key ally of the BJP-led NDA during the Vajpayee government that preceded the UPA regime. “The Gujarat problem did have a negative impact on the minorities’ support for TDP despite our government’s numerous steps for their welfare,” said Naidu.

... contd.