A New Era Starts From Now?!

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Narendra Modi, Our New Prime Minister

'I am optimistic about my country's future. After that speech, I really didn't have a choice. #MODIfied'

I saw this message by my grand niece who is in her early twenties, first thing in the morning in Face book.  I thought, 'Modi has influenced even youngsters by his sincere speech (Acceptance speech at the Central Hall of our Parliament, click here to read/see the speech pl.) yesterday.  She told me later that she became emotional while hearing his speech.  Later in mid-morning, a friend of mine from Assam called and said that her whole family became emotional while watching Narendra Modi's speech.  Well...we have got a sincere, patriotic Prime Minister, I think, which is really unexpected when our country is facing a dearth of a good leader.  I think now, the whole country is expecting a positive/progressive future for us, via Modiji. Let us hope for the best! We need a leader like him very badly!

I read that the whole world was watching our election process, the world's biggest democracy, conducting its election.  Even the remote hilly areas were covered...the voting machine was carried by donkeys, it seems.  Even small villages with very limited people were covered.  It is really fantastic.  Now, I am quoting from 'Outlook' magazine, some anecdotes about this election with my comments within brackets.   It is interesting.  I would like to record and read it whenever I want to, again! Now, to the 16th Lok Sabha election anecdotes:

I love this picture...so many people, esp. women waiting for their turn to vote. peacefully.

1. 551million
 
Highest voter turnout in any general election so far. EC’s provisional figures put the number of voters who exercised their franchise at 551 million, which is more than the combined population of the entire European Union. (Great! This time, even the 'educated' people came out to vote!)

2. The President, Pranab Mukherjee, did not cast his vote for the sake of neutrality, thus restoring a tradition. Presidents Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil, however, had done so.

3. Narendra Modi became the first chief minister in office to also simultaneously launch a prime ministerial campaign (He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the past 12 years!).

4. Modi is the first Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak to make a bid for the prime ministerial office. A.B. Vajpayee was an RSS swayamsevak but not a pracharak. (This made many people,  intellectuals, esp., to think twice before voting for him.  But even the minority community, Muslims, voted for him in large nos. it seems...)

5. It’s the first general election held after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and creation of the 29th state of the Union, Telangana.

6. Gen (rtd) V.K. Singh became the first former army chief to join a party and contest an LS seat. Earlier, Gen Shankar Roychou­dhury was elected to the RS as an independent member from WB.

7. NOTA (None Of The Above) option provided to voters for the first time in a general election (NOTA has become famous in this election.  Even the editor of Outlook, Vinod Mehta punched NOTA, he wrote, later...Quoting from the NDTV link 'While exercising their franchise, country's 59,97,054 voters punched the NOTA button on the electronic voting machines, which equals to 1.1 per cent of the total votes polled during these elections across 543 seats.)
 
8. The EC also introduced for the first time, Voters’ Slips, with their photographs)

9. The rule disqualifying convicted persons from contesting the election came into force in 2014. (But nearly 1/3 rd of the elected candidates are facing criminal charges, though not convicted,  I read.  But nowadays each and every party has got people like them...chalta hai!)

10. Aam Aadmi Party made its debut, putting up over 400 candidates across the country (though many lost deposits later, this is a warning for the regular tainted politicians!)

11. Use of ‘Pepper’s ghost’ or three-dimensional hologram for simultaneous campaigning was brought in for the first time (Modi became famous for this!)

12. Innovative political funding,  with political parties charging money for attending rallies, selling merchandise and through fund-raising dinners (Modi's Trichy (Tamilnadu) meeting, charged Rs.5 per head for attending the meeting and he had a huge crowd there, which was a surprise.  Here, in Tamilnadu, only dravidian parties got this much crowd, normally!)

13. Digital marketing of political messages became more popular following growth of new media

14. A video channel on voters’ awareness and education launched by the Election Commission on its website and youtube.com/eci

15. National Electoral Search to provide polling booth information provided on internet mobile, tablet and computers and mobile SMS through app developed by C-DAC launched

16. Booth-wise electoral rolls uploaded in PDF format on the Election Commission’s website

17. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate (Mr. Narendra Modi) addressed over 5,829 events, including 437 public meetings, 1,350 3-D rallies and 4,000 chai pe charcha programmes since September, 2013, setting a record of sorts.

 Well...I and my family were bored of hearing Modi's voice all the time in TV.  Since he was facing large crowds, he was shouting all the time.  Naidu, the Ex. CM of Andra Pradesh said during Modi's 'acceptance speech', that once in AP, Modi started campaigning from 8 in the morning and till noon he didn't eat anything and later on asked for just tea, it seems.  He wanted to finish off all the meetings and then eat, it seems...I think he said that Modi attended nearly 13 meetings that day.  Modi is a committed person.  

But, the Acceptance speech made us all sit glued to the TV.  No adverse comments.  Nobody laughed even when he broke down (check from the highlighted link given in the second paragraph).  Everybody became emotional which had never happened when a politician spoke.  

The definition for a 'politician' had changed yesterday.  

Jai Hind!

P.S.: Modi's picture, Google courtesy.