<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The final round of battle for the show of strength and confidence among different political parties of India before the actual showdown in mid-2019 produces an anxious verdict as it delivered mixed breed of feelings for all the stakeholders of India’s electoral politics. Accounting to more than 15 percent of the total number of seats in Lok Sabha and the key cow belt bastion, any kind of electoral results in this particular five states, where election were held this time, assumes huge political significance both numerically and ideologically, and has the potential of swinging the political tide in favor of or against any political party\/ies. The latest polls verdict in these five states, therefore, generates excitement and optimism for the current principal opposition party, indicating the revival of its electoral fortune at this time when general election is so close and nervousness and panic for the ruling saffron party as the major sign of its vulnerability surface in this particular election.<\/p>\n
If the latest round of states election, which produces a fractured and uncertain mandate in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, decisive victory for the Congress in Chhattisgarh dethroning BJP after 15 years and a clear mandate for regional parties in Telangana and Mizoram, had any lesson for India, particularly the politicians, then it is that Indian democracy would never permit any form of personality cult by promoting politics that centered around a particular individual and the dictatorship of any political party over the nation, and that political power belongs to the people.<\/p>\n
Although the Congress has every reason to celebrate its first outstanding electoral performance in recent years, yet its performance failed to impress many independent political pundits (the reality is that Congress had win only one state on its own although they had come close to reaching the required number in other two). Under the current Indian complex political scenario, it is impossible for any political party to beat anti-incumbency factor that work against them. And if Congress had improve its poll performance in this three Hindi heartland states, where BJP is in power for long, then the only factor that favor them is anti-incumbency against its opponent. There cannot be a better chance for the grand old party of India to put up an impressive performance in any elections than this latest one. This is an election for the party to win convincingly. The result turned otherwise and the question of congress having a smooth sail in this election never arises. In effect, the congress had lost the best chance of presenting itself, by unseating the BJP comfortably in this election, as a strong and serious challenger to the Modi’s dispensation at New Delhi in 2019.<\/p>\n
On the other, the result is never a good news for the saffron party although it would be wrong on the part of any political analysts to write off the ruling party based on this result as many did during pre-poll surveys. In spite of high anti-incumbency factor against the party, they could still mange to put up a spirited contest that was reflected in the poll results in two states where they are in power for the last 15 years and in another which has a unique tradition of rotating the verdict in favor of either of the two major national political parties alternately since 1993.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the election results in this four cow belt states, which is supposed to be BJP stronghold states given its close proximity with the saffron ideology, indicates that the era of saffron invincibility, built under Modi’s persona, is over. The saffron party is now appears more vulnerable than ever before, and this meant it would mark the return of coalition dharna in national politics. From the question of generosity by accommodating its allies in government in 2014, the saffron party will now be in desperation of keeping them under their flock for retaining power in 2019 (amidst losing long time ally TDP and the growing difference with another long time and ideological ally Shiv Sena). This will forced the party to limits itself within the compulsion of coalition politics.<\/p>\n
For the ruling BJP, if they eventually lose popular support, as has been the probable case in this election, then they still have one crucial and viable political card i.e. the return to Hindutva politics, a sensitive, communal and polarized factor that can win any election for the party which is bound to make Indian politics dirtier in the coming months. With the RSS and its affiliates intensifying its campaign for the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, BJP’s poll strategist are well aware that the issue can bear huge electoral dividend which factor they cannot ignore. The emerging political scenario in the country, which is highly likely, would convert issue such as communalism, Hindu-Muslim and Mandir-Mosque question into a major poll agenda for the coming general election, and this will replace the narrative that define the nature of Indian politics from the aspirational politics of performance and development to communal based politics pitting one religious community against another and placing the issue of constructing temple over the welfare of its citizens, including millions of underprivileged Indians, whom are supposed to be under the care of the state. The lesson that BJP probably can learn from this most recent poll verdict is that when everything fails, it is Modi-Mandir Card that is still capable of winning an election for them. <\/p>\n
If the oppositions’ coalition, if they can ever come together, or the Congress alone has any ambition to dethrone the Modi led BJP\/NDA in New Delhi in 2109 then they need to replicate this poll performance in this round of states election in a much better way by utilizing fully the advantage of anti-incumbency against the ruling government at the center, which is the only factor that will work in their favor and bring them to power. Failing to do so, couple with the ruling party started showing sign of weakness and vulnerability, the country is heading towards a political situation where no party or coalitions could be in a position to form government. A hung, unstable and indecisive house of parliament awaits India as the nation prepares to go for a general election in six months time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The disquiet verdict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}