There is an unfamiliar animal sprawled across the war rooms of most political parties ahead of the 2014 polls. It is the Indian middle class. Not so long ago, its presence was insignificant. Hard-nosed political strategists dismissed it as of little consequence, and they could not be faulted. Most members of this class were self-righteously disinterested in politics; they voted but sporadically; their vision rarely transcended their immediate familial and municipal concerns; and their numbers constituted neither a tactically consolidated bloc, nor a significant numerical size.

But something has changed this time round. The docile, half asleep animal is stirring itself. And nobody is really sure of the consequences of ignoring its importance. There are tangible reasons for this turnaround. If we take a strictly economic criterion of defining a middle class person as anybody who belongs to a household which has a monthly income of between Rs 20,000 and Rs 100,000 a month, the middle class starts to look very substantial. Estimates reveal that as per this criterion the size of the middle class in 1996 was a paltry 25 million. Today, it is in excess of 160 million. And, by 2015, its numbers are expected to go up to 267 million.

This is a very significant critical mass. It is pan-Indian in scale. It has a certain homogeneity, which while not entirely insulated from narrower regional or local considerations, gives it an identifiable commonality of interest. It is educated. It has similar aspirations, and similar expectation levels.

These attributes have been boosted by two very important developments. The first is instant connectivity. Almost every member of the middle class possesses a mobile. And a large part of it is an avid user of social media. Today, this is a class which is in instant and constant conversation with itself. Secondly, it now cohabits an era of 24x7 news. Its pan-Indian dispersal is unified by the relentless national dissemination of news, of which again it is the single biggest consumer.

Political pundits have also carefully watched the slow, selective yet definitive foray of this class in matters outside its traditionally narrow ken of interests. The first signs of this were visible in the Jessica Lal case when Manu Sharma, the accused, who had killed her in 1999 in front of dozens of witnesses, was acquitted in February 2006. For the first time, through candle light vigils and other public displays of anger, the middle class publicly expressed its anger, leading to the verdict being reversed.

More recently, the same nationwide mobilisation was visible during the peak of the Anna Hazare campaign in 2011 against corruption. The large crowds that thronged his public meetings consisted of large segments of the middle class. There were over 4 lakh people supporting his campaign on Facebook. One and a half crore calls were made to the designated phone number in Mumbai in his support. The Nirbhaya rape case in New Delhi in December 2012 again saw this class braving water cannons, shouting slogans, holding protest marches and courting arrest across the country.

Does all of this make the middle class a potent political entity? Yes and no. Yes because it cannot be ignored any longer. And, no because it is still disorganised; it does not have a pan-Indian leadership; its protests are largely limited only to matters which pertain to its own world; it is mostly oblivious to or indifferent about larger issues affecting those below it; and it has displayed a dismaying lack of sustained and in-depth consideration of the pros and cons of policy alternatives. Its anger on issues of lack of governance, corruption, women's safety and price rise is valid; but this anger has also been much too sporadic, often incoherent, and lacking organisational rigour.

The unpreparedness of the middle class for the national role it can potentially play has created a rather serious situation. Its numbers, accessibility and rising levels of anger at the state of things in the country provide a rich harvest for calculating politicians. But its inability to look beyond the immediate, and to posit an alternative vision that combines anger with a well considered blueprint for change, makes it rather easy cannon fodder for those who wish to exploit it. The challenge before the middle class is to contribute to national development with an equitable and comprehensive alternative vision that compels the political class to rethink its strategies on governance, populism, demagoguery, false promises, social divisiveness and electoral and financial malfeasance.

The national elections of 2014 will be a litmus test for the middle class. Mere display of anger will give it a short term importance; different political parties will fuel this anger for partisan short term ends; they will play to the gallery of middle class angst in the hope that this is all that is needed to seduce this class.

But the middle class must understand that anger and alienation without deliberation and careful consideration of what needs to change and in what manner, will be exploited, subsumed, subverted or derailed. For the first time since 1947 the middle class is a player in national politics. The time has come for it to make its choices carefully.