What lies ahead??

The election results on May 16th for the 15th Lok Sabha sent cheers through out the country. Dalal Street saluted the new mandate; trading could continue for a mere 60 seconds on Monday owing to the two upper-circuits experienced by the Sensex, a first in its 22 year history. The Indian voter had spelt out clear indications to the incumbent. We have put our faith in you and cleared all impediments. Its now your turn to deliver.

Deliver. This should be the watchword for the Congress over its next five year term, because the Indian voter is now more aware, more watchful, more sensitive, more averse to failures, more responsible, more responsive than ever. This, I say, because this is what the Indian voter has shown during this elections. The Left was touted as an impediment to the Congress's progressive policies. Result: India did not vote for it. The BJP self acclaimed that the Congress had failed during its previous five year tenure, but could not cite any substantial evidence to prove the same, save for the scattered negative campaigns that L K Advani and his cohorts ran. Result: Their vote share decreased by 3.3% from the previous elections.

Congress in its initial five days is throwing caution in selecting its cabinet minsiters. Shivraj Patil as expected, who was expelled from his home minister chair post the 26/11 Mumbai terrorism, may not feature in the Cabinet. Arjun Singh, who has disappointed as the incumbent of the HRD ministry is expected to lose his seat too. A Raja will not get back the telecommunication chair, this being seen as a crucial sector by the Congress which it seeks to keep for itself. In the 1st announcement there have been only six portfolios announced :Finance(Pranab Mukherjee), External affairs(SM Krishna), Home(P C Chidambaram), Defence(A K Antony), Railways(Mamata Banerjee) and Agriculture(Sharad Pawar). The expansion of the Cabinet will be announced tomorrow. The government is free to take as much time as it wants as long as it takes this time to filter the Cabinet of potential corrupt ministers.

Congress's first task would be to keep its allies happy. A peek into Mamta Banerjee's history shows that she has walked out of the BJP government so that she could form an alliance with the Congress in the West Bengal assembly elections. She has already started demands for an immediate assembly elections in West Bengal which is due in 2011. DMK is not very happy with the three Cabinet seats that it is being alloted, neither it is satisfied with the portfolios to be given to them. Farooq Abdullah flew to South Africa to watch the IPL final, instead of attending the swearing in for ministers, reportedly unhappy with the portfolio he was being allocated. Sharad Pawar demanded more than the two Cabinet seats it had in the previous government, but the Congress would hear nothing about it. Congress can afford to flex its muscle power owing to the 206 seats it has, but this should not give Congress the feeling that it can also afford to build enemies around it.

Next up would be to present the budget which the government has promised to bring out in 45 days. There are myriad expectations from this budget from various sectors of the Indian population. Pranab Mukherjee will have to be very cautious and I am not sure that it will be possible to please everyone. I suspect, there will be undertones of populism in this budget too. However, that could lead to an increase in the fiscal deficit which the finance minister is well aware of. There is also a 100 day agenda that Manmohan Singh has advertised, after which he says there will be significant visible changes in the Indian outlook. This will also serve to measure the government's performance in various departments. This, I think, is a bold step from the PM which should keep the government on its feet. If it fails in its agenda, the media will not really thank it for its efforts.

After seeing so much activity in the government's first few days of office, I am not sure what to expect, and how it will perform on its agenda and manifesto. However, I am really eager to see what transpires over the next five years. If the Congress does perform and deliver, it leaves me with no doubt that there will be another decade of Congress ruling with Rahul Gandhi at its helm. I hope it does for the sake of the country. Jai ho!!!