Indian political juggernaut

The gigantic democracy of India makes it one of the most challenging nations to manage. Administrative functions of any government have to be strong to cater for any event covering the entire country. In 2019, the Indian elections are administratively set up in 7 phases with the earliest taking place on April 11, 2019, and the last on May 19, 2019, covering 543 parliament seats.

Statistics apart, this political extravaganza is more like a festival across the country, and multiplicity of political parties and candidates in fray does not help predict a clear path forward. What is apparent as of now is that two trends stand out. One is a strong anti-incumbency drive, wherein a few political parties that formed the opposition are hell-bent on unseating the ruling political party BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at all costs. Such parties have formed alliance camps and are hoping to pool in votes on caste & religion grounds while at the same time downplaying the achievements of the ruling party. They hope to get voters’ attention in a big way to deny a simple majority to BJP in parliament. Internal dissensions and differences within such alliances along with the growing number of such partnerships are the prime factors that BJP still hopes to make it to the parliament, as yet.

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BJP, on its part, is trying its very best to retain power primarily through an extensive marketing campaign across the country. This is a repeat of what BJP did in the last elections that were held in 2014 with the sole distinction that now BJP has its five years’ performance to defend. BJP leadership enjoys a cleaner image than most opposition political parties but is finding it tough to market its few decisions that reduced incomes available in the hands of the urban middle class. BJP still have to make inroads inside localized politics of at least four southern states of Tamilnadu, Andhra, Telangana & Kerala.

The two major trends seem to be critically woven around the results in the largest chunk of parliamentary seats of Uttar Pradesh i.e.81. Arithmetic seems aligned against any party hoping for a clean sweep (like BJP did in the year 2014) and alliances seem to invoke a new number game in which achievements and failures of the government are mainly taking the second stage.

Political waters in India are thus growing muddier by day, and it is now impossible to predict the name of the winner. What seems assured is that votes may fall in large chunks of groups -ruling and opposition alliances. Only time would reveal on May 23, 2019, as to which group would be able to come forward to form a government with a simple majority. This would be an exciting outcome to watch.

By Sgupta

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