oppn parties 2024 Elections: BJPs Wings Clipped

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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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