This is the last ride Hitch Hiker will take, at least for some time. The launching and nursing of a magazine is taking its toll, especially time available for my independent pursuits. It has been a delight, these 15 months, writing this column for The Express, especially for the reader response I have received. Some of you have even invited me to be friends on Facebook. Thank you.

I am writing this as the final election tallies are streaming in on television. I think very few of us expected these results, and I think for most of us, they come as a bit of a relief. We were expecting a totally hung Parliament, and even perhaps another election within a year. The Congress combine has fallen just short of majority, but we can be assured of a stable government for the next five years. No one will dare to try to pull down this government, since that will only ensure that the Congress gets a larger number of seats in the next polls. And, very importantly — most of us had little confidence in Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen, and we were wrong. For the astonishing gains the party has made in Uttar Pradesh, Congress has only Rahul to thank. He has managed to revive the party organisation, which had been in a state of coma for more than a decade, and it has delivered.

As I was writing the last sentence, Jyotiraditya Scindia became the first Congressman on TV to demand that Rahul become prime minister. Will he? I doubt it, but we could yet be treated to shameless cringe-inducing supplications from Congress MPs to Rahul, as we saw after the last Lok Sabha elections, when each and every MP pleaded with Sonia to become PM. I sincerely pray that Dr. Singh will not have to go through that ordeal once more, this time with Rahul seated by his side.

... contd.