But let all of us rightly unimpressed by the government remember something: the Congress beating national level anti-incumbency in May 2009 was a remarkable political fact. In elections in the last 30 years, the Congress's return to power in 1984 and the BJP-led NDA's in 1999 had been the only two exceptions to the national-level anti-incumbency “rule". And both those victories were influenced by events — Indira Gandhi's assassination and the Kargil victory, respectively — that helped generate what's called a wave in favour of the incumbents. The Congress's May 2009 victory was remarkable because it seemed fit to be interpreted as, even after accounting for important state-level factors, a cool and calm positive voter judgment on the incumbent. A lot of things seemed right for the Congress, and there was no Left.True, the magic of any verdict, no matter how great the electoral story behind it, never lasts in politics. But remembering May 2009 now, just a year-and-a-half into UPA 2's five-year-term, it's quite shocking to realise how little, if any, of that good story survives. Read the full report here.
Source: Saubhik Chakrabarti, Indian Express.
