CAMPAIGN

BJP'S campaign as always has been much more tech savvy ( LED's , addressing people on cellphones et al ); much better use of the new media ( SMS , social networking sites etc. ). Congress has done only marginally better this time with an engineer being at the helm but is still not upto the mark. Besides, it has not been able to utilise its traditional strengths of audio canvassing and door to door campaign -for, these require much longer time which the party never had.
Campaign in the past two elections has been rather strange in MP - till the very last phase it appears to be a relatively smooth ride for the ruling party but as the D-Day approaches a strong undercurrent builds up for the opposition. This happens only when the incumbent government is walking on thin ice - in not having done "real" work relative to the hype. It was the case in Digvijay's second term as also to some extent in Shivraj's half term. ( On the other hand it may not work all that much in Chhattisgarh since Raman Singh has done substantive work and also had a full term to do it). In a way a somnambulant opposition during the term is a double edged sword-While on the one hand it reduces the chances of change in power ( esp. if the incumbent government does good work ), on the other it puts the ruling party in a sort of a lull bordering on overconfidence ( in particular if the team comprises inexperienced/non-grassroots/ mediocre members)