Have Congress & I.N.D.I.A. been able to create a strong positive impact on Indian voters?

I am sure that Congress and I.N.D.I.A. have been able to create a positive impact on Indian voters. The question is how big is it. At least it's not possible at this moment to speculate the impending effects of the alliance. We have to wait till 4th June to know the scale of impact. However, what strikes out is that the name has been able to generate interest among the people. It has been able to draw significant attention from people to the entity. I believe this is what works, you have to be noticed. People will look at you. People would like to know more about you. People will observe you and pay attention to what you say. This is the biggest battle - to get people's attention in a positive manner. The next battle is to hold it.

We call this mind share. In industrial psychology and marketing philosophy, mind share possibly is the biggest game. You need to occupy constant mind share in a positive manner and not let people forget you. I have little experience working on mind share. It's a brilliant subject to work on. The majority of the battles in the corporate world are to occupy the mind space and shelve space. Let me give a very small example. When you love or hate a person he or she constantly occupies your mind share. Knowingly or unknowingly he/she becomes your priority and doesn’t let someone else enter your mind space. because space is limited. The same is true for the shelve space also. The idea is to occupy both the space and don’t let someone else enter there. No matter whether the battle is for love, politics, or the corporate world. I believe that Congress and I.N.D.I.A. have been able quite successful in occupying mind share.

Rahul always had the mind share of people courtesy of BJP and its IT cell. They never allowed people to forget Rahul. Though BJP has built up a negative image mind share of Rahul. Rahul just needed to give the turn. It's like using the pace of the fast bowler to steer the ball to the boundary. You don’t need to put in any extra effort. Over the last two years, Rahul has been quite successful in building a strong positive image and BJP got exposed. Rahul at this moment is occupying a sizable mind share. However, Congress doesn’t have a very large shelve space in terms of organizational structure. This is an area where Congress has to work and possibly I.N.D.I.A. will come into play there.

Conceiving an idea and occupying a mind space sometimes works like pregnancy. Quite often it takes lots of effort to conceive. It just needs one brilliant idea to click and it just needs one sperm to impregnate an ovum. But once conceived, the pregnancy just grows and occupies more space unless someone does something abject or terminates the pregnancy. And at a time only one person can impregnate a female. Pregnancy has three trimesters. The first and the last are the two trimesters which are very crucial in terms of the risk of abortion and miscarriage. Congress and the I.N.D.I.A. are exactly in the last stage of pregnancy. It has taken all the precautions and care. The growth of the fetus is checked and progress is measured. As of now, pregnancy has been confirmed and progressing well. Hope it delivers a healthy baby in terms of election results.