sigh of relief

Whew... the Cong(i)-led United Progressive Alliance hass come back to power. Mashallah, the BJP has been kept out....

Not that I think the UPA is the best of the lot. I dislike dynasty politics and the last government was also corrupt. But if I were to choose between corruption and communal violence, I would definitely choose the former.

my favourite image from the election was a Muslim girl barely out of her teens in Pilibhit consistuency (here the BJP candidate, Varun Gandhi, son of the late Sanjay Gandhi (Indira Gandhi's younger son) was videographed spewing venom against Muslims before he was nominated as the BJP candidate. The election commission took note of the speech and not having jurisdiction over Varun Gandhi took the undprecedented step of advising the BJP not to put him up as a candidate. They chose not to listen to this advice.) saying to the NDTV correspondent, "we should not waste our vote". With number of candidates/parties vying for the Muslim vote, the Muslim vote has splintered and the beneficiary has been the BJP. Never mind that Varun Gandhi won from this consistuency, to me his victory is one of the prices we have to pay for living in a democratic country.