oppn parties 2024 Elections: BJPs Wings Clipped

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  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
D Gukesh is the new chess world champion at 18, the first teen to wear the crown. Capitalizes on an error by Ding Liren to snatch the crown by winning the final game g
oppn parties
2024 Elections: BJPs Wings Clipped

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-06-05 02:25:40

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The 2024 general and assembly elections have been a mix of pro and anti-incumbency. While in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the voters brought back the incumbent governments, in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, they showed them the door. Chandrababu Naidu made a strong comeback in Andhra and Jagan Reddy was left licking his wounds. In Odisha, strongman Naveen Patnaik failed this time and yielded space to the BJP which will form the next government. On the national stage, Prime Minister Modi's BJP bore the brunt of anti-incumbency and just about managed to stave off defeat for its alliance. From 303 seats in 2019, the BJP slid to just 240 this time. This is nothing short of defeat for the party and Modi himself.

The stakes were high. Modi had his guarantees and the BJP sought votes by portraying the good work it had done and the successful delivery of its welfare schemes. Modi and the BJP sought to make fun of the opposition INDIA alliance by calling it "opportunistic" and the Prime Minister disgustingly said that they will even perform mujra to get votes. But it seems that in the last 20 days or so of the elections, the BJP realized that the wind was not in its favour and the talk of 400 paar was all but forgotten, although bhakts carried it on in WhatsApp groups.

The biggest shock for the BJP has come from UP. As the SP-BSP alliance failed miserably in 2019, the BJP made the mistake of taking the SP-Congress alliance lightly. But there is a huge difference. Since SP and BSP are both regional parties aiming for votes from similar castes and classes, the animosity resulted in votes not getting transferred from one to another. No such animosity existed between the Congress and the SP and the biggest example of successful vote transfer was in Varanasi where the SP did not field any candidate and supported Congress’ Ajai Rai. In the process, Rai was able to increase his vote percentage from about 17% in 2019 to over 40% this time and substantially reduced the margin of victory of Prime Minister Modi.

Now, the BJP will have to form a truly coalition government. In 2014 and 2019, it had a simple majority on its own and the government was never in danger of falling if allies deserted. This time, it will be pushed hard by ambitious, and unreliable allies, and will have to accommodate too many of them. It will have to follow the coalition dharma. It will be interesting to watch how the BJP, given to ride roughshod over the opposition, manages the allies if they raise their voice against its policies. 

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