Electorate shows dislike for emotive issues, may focus on performance
Many balance sheets will be rewritten and fortunes overturned in the next 24 hours as 400,000 security personnel, 500,000 officials, 320 poll observers, over 5,000 candidates and around 90 million voters will be involved in Assembly elections in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Prad-esh and Rajasthan that go to the polls tomorrow.
Counting will be on December 4 and results will be out that afternoon itself as electronic voting machines have been used in all the states.
The outstanding feature of this election is that while tickets have been given largely along caste lines by both the two major political parties in the fray, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the campaign has only been about performance.
Except in interior pockets of Rajasthan, where caste still evokes strong loyalties, the political discourse has been about governance. In this election more than any other, people will
