So, what worked in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader Narendra Modi during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections? A clear shift of Dalit/Muslim votes to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a vote for governance and leadership and a clear preference for the BJP among young voters.
That, among others, are the salient points that came across on Boom News's #TheIndiaHangout that got together Govindraj Ethiraj, Yashwant Deshmukh, founder of CVoter, Rajeeva Karandikar of Chennai Mathematical Institute and Chakshu Rai of PRS Legislative.
Some of the other key highlights of the debate:
Middle class has become a vote bank; not based on caste/religion: Deshmukh
Leaders who have performed well have defied the Modi wave: Deshmukh
Performance at the micro level matters a lot: Deshmukh
People were thinking in terms of governance: Deshmukh
10% Muslim votes to NDA, according to our calculations: Karandikar
Around 43% of 18-25 age group voters supported NDA: Karandikar
We have roughly the same demographics of people in Parliament that we had in 2009: Rai
There was anger against centre, anger against state Govt in Uttar Pradesh: Karandikar
Top three issues for voters were price rise, governance and leadership: Karandikar
Religion/Hindutva was never among the top issues this time: Karandikar
There is now enormous pressure on BJP to deliver: Karandikar
300 new members of Parliament coming in like 2009: Rai
A number of experienced MPs have lost the elections: Rai
With a weak opposition, the role of Parliament becomes more important: Rai