AS the election campaign reaches its crescendo, the strategy of the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, is becoming more and more apparent. It is attempting to create a rainbow alliance of the middle castes and dalits in order to ensure that it reaches the half-way mark and does not need the help of those outside the NDA to make a government at the centre. In order to do this, it is stitching up alliances with prominent OBC and dalit groups. Thus it has inducted a senior dalit leader, Udit Raj, into its ranks and engineered an alliance with the LJP in order to make inroads into dalit votes.

THE recent disclosures that have come in the press that Vodafone and Verizon have helped their “parent” spy outfits – GCHQ (UK) and NSA (USA) – to spy on the Indian telecom network will not be a shock to the readers of this column. We have been writing on the dangers that foreign owned telecom companies pose to the Indian network as they can be used as Trojan horse.

THE Congress party, with great fanfare, has released its manifesto for the 2014 general elections. Readers will recall that amongst the six national parties, it was the CPI(M) that first released its manifesto to the Indian electorate on March 20, 2014. The Congress manifesto, the country is being told, has been prepared on the basis of a “unique exercise” which is a “reflection of the voice of the people of India”. The manifesto opens with a claim “The open Manifesto Process: Pathbreaking Political Reform”.

NARENDRA Modi is contesting from Varanasi for the Lok Sabha election. This step is laden with an ominous political message. The BJP and the RSS are signaling that aggressive Hindutva will underpin the election campaign. Though the BJP has officially not given any reason for Modi contesting from Varanasi, it has briefed the media that putting up Modi in Varanasi will benefit the party in the Lok Sabha elections in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining areas in Bihar. Such reasoning is only a smokescreen.

CONGRESS spokesman and chairman of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) that is probing the 2G spectrum scam, P C Chacko, has admitted that the Congress is facing an adverse situation in the Lok Sabha election. Addressing a Meet the Press programme in the Eranakulam Press Club recently, Chacko said that the Congress had no scope of victory would have to sit in the opposition benches this time.