’Not a neta. Only a magician with numbers can form government’

That's what a team of foreign correspondents from across the world feels after watching India vote

'Not a neta. Only a magician with numbers can form government'

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'Not a neta. Only a magician with numbers can form government'

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That's what a team of foreign correspondents from across the world feels after watching India voteu00a0

For many of them this was an initiation into the vast, complex jigsaw puzzle called Indian democracy; the first inside view of how the world's most populated country votes in a month-long, winding electoral process; how despite all odds, both domestic and neighbouring, it manages to elect a people's government to power in a poll that can be as fair as possible. The journey was supposed to offer answers. But it actually posed more questions.

On the poll trail: The BBC team after arriving at Safdarjung Railway Station on Wednesday

After a serpentine train trip across India, a team of journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), seemed more puzzled about how the pieces of the puzzle would actually fall into place on May 16.

"It seems like a challenge from outside. But from inside, it's like a magician's tool box, an assortment of little articles which when used in the right way will create a breathtaking spectacle.

It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle where every constituency in every state has a role to play to complete the picture.

But before the puzzle comes to shape no one knows what will fit where," said George Arney of BBC World Service Radio, as he disembarked at Safdarjung Station from the special train that took him and his colleagues around the country to show the world the real Indian democratic process.
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While many of the foreign correspondents and representatives seemed better equipped to understand the Indian polling system after the trip, they didn't have an answer to the pertinent question of the hour who will come to power in Delhi?

A hint. Intelligence agencies say it will be a BJP-led coalition.

"Be it the slums of Mumbai, the tech-city Hyderabad or the sex workers' colony in Allahabad, every constituency has voted for a different reason.

No one really cared if theu00a0 the next prime minister will be from the BJP, the Congress or any other alternative front.

They were more interested in choosing the right local man who would get them water, electricity, cheaper housing, security or may be faster Internet connectivity!

The final image will be an amalgamation of all these right local men in the right numbers," said Yusuf-Garaad Omar, editor, Somali Service, African and Middle East Region, BBC.

Agreed Arney, "The Indian electoral process has become so fragmented, it'll need an expert statistician to form a government in Delhi.

Only a magician with numbers can achieve this task. It's all about numbers at the end. Right now it's very difficult to predict who that genius mathematician will be."

For Yusuf, even the few kingmakers he met didn't offer much insight. "I met Chandrababu Naidu, Lalu Yadav and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

From my little knowledge of the Indian polity, I knew these were important men who would pull strings at Delhi but none of them divulged anything about their future plans.

Surprisingly, they almost seemed detached from the government-forming process. Naidu came across as a visionary who not only thought about his state but India as a whole.

"With Lalu, it was more of a fun day with tea, snacks and a lot of jokes. Interestingly, the gender equation between him and his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister herself, was more than evident.
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Her chair was placed a little behind him. Lalu likes to be in charge. And the meeting with Bhattacharjee was an eye-opener.

His office was as simple as any other government department, his Leftist leanings more than clear in his bearings," said Yusuf.

But it was Mark Perrow, commissioning editor, BBC News Channels, who summed up the forecast. "In India two trains are running on the same track.

The fast train the urbanised, tech-savvy, globe-trotting generation is accelerating very fast. Whereas, the slow train rural India is racing but not as fast.
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Any leader of the country has to keep the two as close as possible. And every one we met agreed with this."

Poll trip

The BBC train, which was flagged off on April 25 from Safdarjung Railway Station, travelled from Delhi to Ahmedabad on the first leg of the trip, before moving on to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna and Allahabad, before returning to Delhi on Wednesday.