Why my vote goes to Modi this time.

Before we dive in, let me lay my cards on the table - I'm usually perched on the electoral fence, observing the political melee from a safe, non-committal distance. But this time around, I find myself swinging, somewhat surprisingly, towards the BJP, and here's why.

The Congress party's hangover lingers like a bad aftertaste, and it's high time we reach for the political aspirin. Their second term was akin to a self-inflicted wound by the electorate, a disaster movie where we all knew the ending but bought tickets anyway. It's about time we put Congress in the political deep freeze, and from the looks of it, they're already halfway to a frosty political coma.

Reflecting on the past five years in Delhi, it's been nothing short of a puppet show. The twist? The puppet was an honest, intellectual Prime Minister with the assertiveness of a library mouse. He was like the quintessential good boy from a convent school who, by some bizarre twist of fate, found himself herding a class of unruly, vernacular-spewing brats.

What we're craving is a leader with a capital 'L' - someone who can steer the ship without asking the sea for permission. The business sentiment in our country is as deflated as our current PM's sotto voce. We need a centrifugal force in our national politics, a force robust enough to keep the economic wheels churning and to whip the unruly allies into line.

Enter the AAP, the proverbial bull in a china shop. But one can't help but wonder if this bull was sneakily sedated and nudged into the BJP's porcelain store by the Congress, just for kicks. Trust the Congress to play a game of political Jenga with the country's future.

Opting for a 'third front' now would be like assembling a band of discordant musicians, each brandishing a different instrument, to play at a funeral. Their cacophony would be the crudest punchline to the somber joke that Congress seems to be leading with a torch.

The BJP's propaganda machine has been churning faster than a Mumbai local in rush hour, glorifying Modi's Gujarat model. But as Swami Iyer points out in his recent ET article, running the central government is a whole new ball game - Modi's potential Achilles' heel.

So, here's where my vote is going - to build a robust national party with a leader who doesn't need a megaphone to be heard. The mission? To clean up the Congress's mess post-haste. At this juncture, Modi stands out as the best bet, the political equivalent of a cleanup hitter in the bottom of the ninth. Let's see if he can knock it out of the park.