10 signs that a political party’s star is in the ascendant

Some problems are good to have. For political parties, not being talked about is worse than being talked about in negative terms. By this logic, the two parties India has to reckon with are the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for different reasons. One is a bidder for power, and the other is the newbie making waves for its ideology. [caption id=“attachment_1436691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: PTI[/caption] If you want to know you your party is going to fare in the forthcoming elections, you could either trust the opinion polls, or the unpaid media, but here are 10 signs that can tell you whether the wind is blowing in your favour or against. You know if you are on a good wicket if… #1: There is more heartburn within the party about tickets and nominations than outside it. #2: Parties, or people, who earlier called you names now think you are the next best thing to sliced bread. #3: People are willing to join your party even after being given a ticket elsewhere. #4: Your opponents are more keen to bring up your past than talk about the future. #5: Your rivals want to contest the Rajya Sabha rather than Lok Sabha. #6: You have more potential allies than you can accommodate. #7: You become the sole, or main, target of everybody’s attacks. #8: Everyone starts asking you where you got your money from rather than telling us where they got theirs. #9: When there is talk of paid media whenever you get a good press. #10: You hear about conspiracy theories about how some people in the party, or outside it , are ganging up against the Big Leader.