Key State Elections: Opposition To Be Tested
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-04-06 03:21:02
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Two states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and one Union territory, Puducherry, will have state elections today in a single phase. Assam will be voting in the third and final phase while the third phase (out of the total eight) of voting will take place in West Bengal.
In Kerala, the LDF and the UDF are engaged in a direct contest with the BJP nowhere in the picture. Despite anti-incumbency and focus by Rahul Gandhi, it seems the LDF is poised to win the state. In Tamil Nadu, the incumbent AIADMK, despite support from the BJP (or maybe because of that) is likely to lose the elections and the DMK might win. In Assam, the BJP alliance is likely to return to power, while in Puducherry, the Congress is likely to taste defeat.
It is West Bengal that is throwing up mixed signals and no one is willing to bet his or her money on the outcome. That the TMC is rattled is clear in the manner Mamata Banerjee is saying that the ISF has taken money from the BJP to split Muslim votes and making repeated to the community not to fall in the trap and divide their votes.
It seems that the BJP charges of taking cut money from beneficiaries before making payments to them under government schemes and the oppression of the syndicate raj have found takers among the voters. On the contrary, the TMC charge of the BJP being a party of 'outsiders' seems not to have found resonance. The state is divided despite the TMC doing good work in the last 6 months.
These elections hold the key which way opposition unity will take. For, if the BJP manages to win Assam and Puducherry, makes a huge dent in the TMC citadel in West Bengal and wins more than expected seats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the opposition will have to give serious thought to the points enumerated in Mamata Banerjee's recent letter to 14 opposition leaders.
