Hail, caudillos!

The general elections to the Lok Sabha in India are arguably the greatest show on earth. The exercise, involving half-a-billion voters, millions of party cadres, thousands of candidates and an army of security personnel conducting the regular rites of democracy in a country as vast as India – well, it is mind-boggling, to put it mildly. It is only when the elections are over that the world realises what a miracle has taken place. Perhaps that is the reason – no matter who tops the tally – that the results of the Indian elections are always full of surprises; the diversity of the winners list is invariably bewildering. The guessing game is currently on about possible winners and losers; but considering the complexities of the exercise, even hardened psephologists hedge their bets with endless ifs and buts. The certainties of the past, when all that the Indian National Congress nominees had to worry about were rebel candidates, are long over.

Towering personalities continue to dominate national parties even now, but public figures that matter in the power equation now come from state capitals. Sonia Gandhi, L K Advani and Prakash Karat may be national leaders of the UPA, NDA and CPM, but their fortunes depend upon political engineers behind contraptions with a bewildering array of initials and acronyms, such as RJD, BSP, BJD, PDP, TDP, LJP, NCP, IUML, DMK, DMDK, AIADMK and PMK. These organisations are the political equivalent of private limited companies established and dominated by entrepreneurs extraordinaire.