oppn parties Jharkhand, Too, Shows The Door To The BJP

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  • 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
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oppn parties
Jharkhand, Too, Shows The Door To The BJP

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2019-12-23 18:33:43

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 BJP has been decisively beaten in Jharkhand. At the time of writing this article, the Congress-JMM alliance had secured wins/leads in 44 seats (the majority mark is 41). The outgoing chief minister, Rahgubar Das of the BJP has already conceded defeat. This win is a shot in the arm for the Opposition which has finally found three sticks to beat the BJP with - the floundering economy, the NRC and the CAA.

Although state elections are normally fought on local issues (and there were many such issues in Jharkhand), it would not be wrong to say that the state of the economy along with the lack of jobs, the rising food inflation, the general fear over the NRC and the confusion over the CAA must have played on the minds of voters. They have voted for the Opposition to send out a clear signal to the BJP - that it has failed to deliver the promised "acche din".

The overriding concern in the state this time was the decision of the outgoing government to bring changes in the Chota Nagpur and Santhal Pargana tenancy laws to make land acquisition easier in order to bring large projects to the state. But it seemed to have boomeranged. The Adivasis were angry as they thought it to be a backdoor attempt to snatch their land. The Raghubar Das government did nothing to pacify them. They chose to reply by not pressing the button with the lotus symbol.

The youth was disillusioned as whatever little opportunities they had in the backward state have dried up in the last six months as the economy has witnessed a severe downturn. There has been no major development in the state in the last five years and coupled with the anger amongst the Adivasis, the writing was on the wall for the BJP. The exit polls had predicted a close fight but in the end, the Opposition managed to take advantage of the anti-incumbency and put it across the BJP.