oppn parties What Exactly Is Popular Mandate - Percentage of Votes Or Number Of Seats?

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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
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What Exactly Is Popular Mandate - Percentage of Votes Or Number Of Seats?

By Sunil Garodia

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

During the debate on the confidence motion in favour of the BS Yediyurappa government in the Karnataka assembly, Congress leader Siddaramaiah pointed out that with just 105 members in the house of 224, the BJP did not have the mandate to rule. But Siddaramaiah forgot that with just 80 seats for the Congress and just 37 seats for the JD(S) and with no pre-poll alliance, the two parties had ruled the state for 14 months by forming an unholy, post-poll alliance. Did they have the mandate to rule?

The 2018 assembly elections in the state delivered a fractured mandate. No party got an absolute majority. But a closer examination of the results shows that the Congress and the JD(S) were definitely rejected by the people. The Congress was the ruling party yet it fell from 122 seats in the 14th assembly to 80 seats in the 15th. Hence, it is clear that the intention of the people was to vote it out. The JD(S), on the other hand, remained an also-ran. It had 40 seats in the outgoing assembly which was further reduced to 37. Did the figures say that the Congress and the JD(S) had the mandate? Did the people ever expect to have HD Kumaraswamy as chief minister when they made his party win in only in 37 constituencies?

This is not to say that the people voted for the BJP to run the government. But still, it was the single largest party and had an upswing of more than 16% votes in its favour. The Congress can claim that the BJP got just 36.14% of the popular votes while it got 38.14% and hence it had more popular support, but that does not work in the first-past-the-post system of elections that India follows. It is the seats that matter and Congress was a clear loser there. Yet, with 38.14% popular votes, it was Congress' democratic duty to attempt to form the government in a fractured house. But where the Congress erred was in giving the top post to the JD(S), a party which had just 18.3% popular votes. The mantra then was to accept anything to keep the BJP out and when the JD(S) wanted its pound of flesh, the Congress high command caved-in. This resulted in friction within the Congress and it finally led to the fall of the government.

This is not to say that what the BJP did to break the alliance was proper. Luring away MLAs with a promise of reward goes against the spirit of the 10th schedule of the Constitution. With the MLAs having been disqualified by the Speaker, there are going to be protracted court cases and things are likely to turn messy. If the results in the bypolls are not in favour of the BJP, BS Yediyurappa's government is also not going to last long. In the political games being played in the state, it is the people who are suffering. The development of the state has taken a back seat as politicians fight turf wars. 

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