By Our Reporter
The general election in India threw a hung parliament once again. No single party won the majority this time. According to the final results made public on Tuesday night, the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP’s Narendra Modi won 293 of 543 seats, while the opposition alliance I.N.D.I.A., led by Indian National Congress won 234 seats. Although the NDA won the majority of seats to form a new government under Narendra Modi, the BJP faced a setback. In 2019, BJP alone had won 303 seats and the NDA 353. But this time BJP won 240 seats, losing 63 seats it had won in 2019. In 2014, BJP had won 282 seats.
This shows the diminishing popularity of the BJP and Modi. Modi himself got fewer votes this year in his Varanasi constituency compared to the votes he garnered in 2014 and 2019. He was elected with 612,970 votes this year while his closest rival Ajay Rai of INC got 460,457 votes. In 2019, Modi got 680,000 votes. His vote shares dropped to 54 per cent from 63 per cent in five years. Surprisingly, the BJP lost the Ayodhya seat while the reconstruction of Ram Mandir was one of the key slogans raised by Modi this time.
The Indian election has hinted at the gradual rejection of the populist agenda.
I.N.D.I.A. made a big gain this year by winning 234 in total. In 2019, it had won only 91 seats. Likewise, the Congress led by Rahul won 99 seats this time while it had won just 52 in 2019.
Although Modi will become the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term. Earlier, only Jawaharlal Nehru had become the Prime Minister of India for the third term.
Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav and All India Trinamool Congress of Mamta Banerjee made big gains this time. INC won 47 more seats than it had won in 2019, SP won 37 seats, 32 seats more than in 2019, and Trinamool Congress 29, seven seats more than in 2019.
Another key message of the Indian election is that the exit poll aired immediately after the conclusion of the voting on June 1 was fake.
Modi’s arrogance and dictatorship rejected:
The Indian voters rejected providing an absolute majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) commanded by the Hindu radical force RSS (Rastriya Soyamsewak Sangh).
In fact, India has rejected Narendra Modi’s dictatorship, arrogance and anarchism.
It was believed that if Modi became the third time prime minister with an absolute majority, he would initiate an “Akhanda Bharat” campaign troubling small neighboring countries.
Modi abducted the autonomous status of the people in Jammu and Kashmir during his second innings and possibly he would be inspired to bring Nepal under the Indian security umbrella after assuming office for the third time.
Economically strong India is good for its small neighbors but a strong government with an absolute majority can be a threat to the neighbors.
Nepal is strongly dominated by India. In 2015, India imposed an economic blockade, and later India unilaterally published a political map of India by including Nepal’s territory — Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyuadhara — and now, India is unilaterally constructing a road in the Nepali territory currently occupied by India.
Login to add a comment