The \u201cBharat judega, I-N-D-I-A jitega\u201d slogan of the opposition alliance has spurred the political opponents of the BJP. They have started believing that the battle is half won.
Number of stronger parties are with the 26 new allies, Congress leaders claim. The BJP leaders say they are aware of cosmetic strength of many of their 38 allies, still they are confident that the NDA has an edge.
The Alliance effort is to change the contest paradigm, while the BJP is keen on pitching it as Modi versus others.
The political scenario in Karnataka and Himachal has changed. In Rajasthan, Congress hopes to do better; contest is said to be tough in MP, and BJP itself unsure of Chhattisgarh. Karnataka as of now is likely to be better for the Congress. So the numbers may change in many volatile states.
Amid these calculations, the allies meet in the chamber of Leader of the Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, to decide strategies to be adopted during the Parliament session on Wednesday. The first day as expected the opposition had its way on the issue of shocking Kuki -Manipuri girls being abducted and paraded naked and ordinance for Delhi governance.
Those against the BJP are trying to see a hope in the alliance, provided it shapes up the way it is conceived. Some like Rashtriya Lok Dal\u2019s Jayanta Chaudhury may still be dithering, though he is conscious that a truck with the saffron party may result in his own dilution among his supporters, largely farmers, are against it.
Bengal remains critical. Congress and Left have been doing well in local alliance. But if TMC becomes a part of it, calculations can change. In Kerala, despite friendly fights, together the numbers would be of the Alliance India.
Overall it is interesting. There are three broad emerging frameworks \u2013 direct contests, BJP strongholds and those who are away from both Congress and BJP. It is assumed that there could be direct contest in 380 Lok Sabha seats between the NDA and I-N-D-I-A. In about 118 seats, there could be triangular contest. It is presumed that I-N-D-I-A could have serious issues of deciding their candidates in 100 seats. This may include Bengal and Kerala.
Uttar Pradesh remains jazzy. Congress is conspicuous by its absence. Samajwadi and RLD are not keen on giving too many seats to Congress. The BSP, considered shadow BJP ally, may ensure three-cornered contest.
This is not to say that discontent in the state has not grown. Even in Varanasi and other places the trend is visible. The BJP, however, believes it would get a good chunk of seats even if it has to lose a few now being held by it. In 2019, BJP won 62, ally Apna Dal 2, BSP 10, SP 5 seats. Still it is hopeful of getting above 50 of the 80 seats. The seats won by Mayawati will be a loss to Alliance India.
Aware of image problem and performance of about 20 sitting members in UP, BJP mulls to change them with new faces. But a tussle between Brahmins, Thakurs and OBCs may influence the final decision.
And in about 63 seats in Andhra, Telangana, and Odisha, the regional satraps YSR Congress of Jaganmohan Reddy, Bharat Rashtra Samiti of KC Rao, and Biju Janata Dal od Naveen Patnaik to play their cards.
Presently BJD has 12 of the 21 seats, BJP has 8 and Congress 1. YSR Cong has 22 of the 25 seats. BSR has 9 of the 17 seats, BJP 4, Congress 3 and AIMM 1.
Finally there are 224 seats where BJP was in a stronger position in 2019. The BJP won half of these seats by over 50 percent votes. BJP had contested 436 seats. Of the 224, BJP won 120 seats with Congress in straight fight, These included 26 seats of Gujarat, 23 of Rajasthan, 25 of MP, 22 of Karnataka, 9 of Haryana, 6 of Chhattisgarh, 4 of Himachal and 5 of Uttarakhand. It had won 40 UP seats with over 50 percent votes.
The equation changes in many of the BJP stronghold. Congress is upbeat after the resounding victory in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka and the way the graph of Congress is increasing day by day in Telangana, the contest in this budding southern state is now turning between the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress. The BJP, which was very enthusiastic about Telangana, seems to be losing its charm forcing BJP to change its state president.
On the other hand, an upbeat Congress is claiming victory in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan assembly elections as well. In Rajasthan, by bringing about a reconciliation between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, the Congress has prepared itself to go to the polls in an organized manner and take on the BJP.
In Bihar and Jharkhand, BJP may not sail smooth.
The INDIA alliance is trying hard to wrest the seats and the BJP is working the other way to retain the strength. If they can build up sharper campaign, the Alliance may gain. But in no case BJP will give leave its turf and even till the poll can poach on some of the vulnerable parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The \u201cBharat judega, I-N-D-I-A jitega\u201d slogan of the opposition alliance has spurred the political opponents of the BJP. They have started believing that the battle is half won.Number of stronger parties are with the 26 new allies, Congress leaders claim. The BJP leaders say they are aware of cosmetic strength of many of their 38 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397,395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-columnist","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365167","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}