India has 543 Lok Sabha (Member of Parliament, or MP) constituencies. Out of them, about 150 can be considered as urban (with about 50% or more urbanisation). Each constituency has about 1 million voters. In the general elections, the average victory margin is about 70,000. Only about 50-60% of eligible voters cast their votes. A significant proportion of middle class Indians don’t bother to vote. They have essentially disenfranchised themselves.

To bring about change, one has to work within the boundaries of the political system. We have two national parties. It is well near impossible to create a new national party in the country in anything less than 25-30 years. And our deadline for change is four years from now – 2014, in the next Lok Sabha elections. Because we do not have more time to lose.

Imagine, if we can get 100+ ‘good’ people elected into Parliament in the next elections. These candidates would have to be from one of the two national political parties. Assuming that party can win another 100 seats in rural India, it would have 200+ seats in the Lok Sabha – and we in Middle India would have influence on half of them.

For this to happen, Middle India needs to vote. It not only has to vote but it has to vote for good candidates. And most important of all, it has to vote as a block and become a “vote bank.”

Continued tomorrow.