If a Narendra Modi-baiter magazine like Outlook has conceded 187 seats to the NDA immediately after his anointment (The Punters in Orange City, Sept 30), then I am sure the party alone will cross 200 as the campaign picks up. As for your state assessments, in Bihar Nitish is going to get a drubbing—he is now a victim of his own plan. Regional satraps Jayalalitha, Chandrababu Naidu and Mamata Banerjee are bound to fall in. And the Abdullahs and Ajit Singhs, they’ll join any alliance that offers them a berth.
Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao, Vijayawada
The survey puts out a good estimate for each state and there’s some merit in the analysis by your experts. I have added 44 more from states like Bengal, TN, Andhra and Kerala where I feel Modi’s outreach will have some effect. So it’s 221, but still 51 short...but we haven’t counted the ballooning list of prospective allies. It looks promising.
P.N. Razdan, Gurgaon
As an Indian Christian, what’s been alarming to note is the very perceptible escalation of anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan fervour among the youth, which will sooner or later trickle down to include all minorities. I am also horrified at how appealing the bellicose capitalism of Modi is to young educated men and women, across castes, especially in urban spaces like Mumbai where I am from. I hope you are right in your prognosis and the RSS gamble does not pay off. But the signs are looking grim.
Lucy Burns, Mumbai
The RSS pracharak’s conviction is true: the educated, tech- savvy, default Hindu youth is more likely to be a Pak-hater today. A section of the Indian youths are pro-Modi for his development-oriented image, but a large majority understand little of this. They idolise him for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, which is scary.
Shashank, Mumbai
This communal polarisation route you cite is really ridiculous. Modi already has the vote of the core Hindutva voters so he’ll increasingly try to move towards the centre to appeal to the fence-sitters. The proof: Modi is not campaigning citing the UP riots, nor is he talking about the vhp’s Ram mandir agenda.
Dipto, New York
Maybe we should take heed of the warning by Jesus: resist not evil. By resisting, we may be creating more damage that by just letting him pass.
Mohan Das, Bangalore
For a person who has ‘no chance of winning’, the secular forces spend an inordinate amount of time on Modi. The point they don’t understand is that it’s immaterial if Modi can lead the NDA to victory or not. What matters is: can he better their performance with him in front or not? It’s evident that the answer is yes.
Ras, Bangalore
In light of right-to-food and other such dole, looks like Outlook too has been a beneficiary of Congress largesse.
Akshay Khanna, Delhi
It’s not a good sign for the UPA if even Outlook’s experts are predicting that a four-party NDA will get 187 seats.
Gandhar, New Jersey
Unlike earlier when the tina factor worked for the Congress, this time there is a concrete, viable alternative.
Madhukar Nigam, Hyderabad
If the citizens understand that change is needed, the BJP is the only viable option. Without change, decay is a must.
Ranen Dutta, Visakhapatnam
Everyone in the Delhi durbar is threatened by the rise of an underdog from Gujarat. But wait and watch, this underdog will address the nation from Red Fort’s ramparts in 2014.
Narendra Moorjani, Baroda
The golden age that India witnessed during the Gupta empire, which existed from AD 320 to 550, will revisit us once again from 2014 onwards when Modi becomes PM.
Varma, Visakhapatnam
Outlook has an article every other week decrying Modi, which only goes to prove that NaMo has made a bigger impact on Indian politics than any of his contemporaries.
Sandhya Krishnamurthy, on e-mail
Despite the BJP’s pariah status among the political parties, it has a better chance of putting together a “coalition of the willing” than the UPA.
Hitesh Brahmbhatt, San Diego
The acid test for the BJP will be the forthcoming assembly polls in the four north states. Modi’s road to Delhi will be paved or destroyed here.
S. Balakrishnan, Jamshedpur
Why are you obsessed with pulling Modi down? A people’s magazine like Outlook should be above petty politics.
Mythili, Bangalore
Modi is busy chasing his PM dreams. Meanwhile, Gujarat is going under with the floods and the industrial effluent barrage that has flown in with it. If this situation continues, the man should worry—soon he’ll neither be CM nor PM.
Rohit Prajapati, Baroda
Heard the latest? A Gujarati film, The Good Road, is to represent India in the Oscars best foreign film category. Hearing this, some 65 MPs have written a letter to US president Obama requesting that the US not screen the movie.
Mohan R., Gandhidham
In all surveys and across all zones (except for the south), Modi has got the most votes as a future PM candidate. The man is Capt Marvel himself.
C.K. Subramaniam, Mumbai
Right now, if Modi wants to be PM, what he needs to do most is assuage the fear of minorities about their safety and security in India. Shedding that autocratic, biased image will be crucial if he wants to cross the 200-seats mark in 2014.
K.R. Srinivasan, Secunderabad
