For the BJP to live up to its 370-seat goal, it needs to retain every seat it currently holds, win back the 14 seats eroded in course of the Lok Sabha’s tenure *and win 67 additional seats
https://thewire.in/politics/from-where-will-the-bjp-win-370-seats
11/04/2024
The law takes its own course — unless it is nudged by politics. https://indianexpress.com/article/express-exclusive/since-2014-25-opposition-leaders-facing-corruption-probe-crossed-over-to-bjp-23-of-them-got-reprieve-9247737/
Since 2014, as many as 25 prominent politicians facing action from Central agencies for alleged corruption have crossed over to the BJP. They cut across party lines: 10 are from the Congress; four each from NCP and Shiv Sena; three from TMC; two from TDP; and one each from SP and YSRCP.
In 23 of these cases, their political move has translated into reprieve, an investigation by The Indian Express has found.
From Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, Naveen Jindal to Geeta Koda, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continued to reward leaders from opposition parties who it had once accused of corruption but have since joined ranks with the saffron party or become its allies.
https://thewire.in/politics/scams-forgotten-bjp-rewards-corruption-tainted-leaders-ahead-of-lok-sabha-polls Opposition parties have accused the BJP of being a “washing machine” for tainted leaders who switch over to the saffron party to avoid further action from central agencies. The Wire has also reported on a statewise list of such leaders who have switched over in recent months. Since then the CBI has filed a closure report in a corruption case involving Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction), and illegal mining scam accused G. Janardhan Reddy has joined the BJP.
01/04/2024
Elections renew democracy in India. How is democracy expected to survive if the election process itself is corrupted or vitiated? It has been clearly visible for the last 10 years that the media is against the opposition and is an enthusiastic and aggressive campaigner or propagandist of the BJP. So it is naive to expect it to convey the opposition’s message to the public.
One expects that when the ruling party starts becoming autocratic, the rest of the institutions of the state will come together to protect the democratic and constitutional processes. But it seems that all the institutions of the state have merged themselves with the BJP. Old army officers are surprised and worried to see that the army has also started talking in the language of the BJP.
by Apoorvanand
01/04/2024
INDIA bloc rally vs Modi’s ‘war’ on corruption: What made the front pages of newspapers?
The rally in Delhi was ‘in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc’ https://www.newslaundry.com/2024/04/01/india-bloc-rally-vs-modis-war-on-corruption-what-made-the-front-pages-of-newspapers
The Indian Express in Delhi had the event on page 1, with the top headline declaring the opposition “rings alarm on free and fair polls”. On the side was a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a speech at an event in Meerut, where he “launched a no-holds-barred attack on the Opposition saying its leaders were trying to ‘save the corrupt’ at a time when he was waging war against corruption”.
The Hindu in Delhi also devoted the top half of page 1 to the Delhi rally, saying this was “in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc, which has been hit by desertions and conflicts over seat-sharing arrangements”. A snippet on the page noted that the BJP claimed the rally “failed to make a mark...with citizens of Delhi rejecting the rally calls of AAP and Congress”.
Hindustan Times had two stories sharing space on its front page in Delhi. The first was on the INDIA rally, the second was Modi’s promise that “action on corruption” will continue. The prime minister had been speaking at the Potato Research Institute in Meerut.
The Times of India in Delhi followed the same approach, placing the two stories side by side. It had Modi claiming “this war on graft…has put biggies in jail” while Rahul Gandhi said Modi was engaging in electoral “match-fixing along with three-four billionaires to snatch Constitution from poor”
The Telegraph in Kolkata which said the rally “tried to make most of the public sympathy generated by the rash of arrests of Opposition leaders. The story shared space with a rally held by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Dhubulia in Sunday, where she threw her weight behind Mahua Moitra. Banerjee “held aloft…Moitra’s hand” and “urged people to re-elect her to register their protest against her expulsion from Parliament”.
Subcategories
Indian Electoral Politics: Shifting Sands
Seven decades down the line the electoral scene has changed for the worse and is currently dominated by emotive issues. The foundation of derailing the ‘this worldly’ issues was the Ram Temple movement. This movement became stronger after the implementation of Mandal Commission report. Since then the domination of emotive, identity issues is on the rise. This is reflected by the fact that in 2019, no party dared to utter the word secularism, as claimed by the winner of 2019 elections, Mr. Narendra Modi himself. He presented it as a trophy for the efforts of RSS-BJP’s political success.
https://countercurrents.org/2022/11/indian-electoral-politics-shifting-sands/
It is in this track that any issue can be given a religious turn as we witnessed its peak in the coining of phrase ‘Corona Jihad’. This showed how electoral politics can be reduced merely to game of identity issues. BJP has mastered this art over a period of last few decades. The media, which is prostrating to BJP ideology, is putting its best efforts to magnify the doings of communal stream.
Not to be left behind, Arvind Kejrival is trying to compete which these divisive efforts revolving around identity issues, in his own unique smart ways. The AAP, which in a way, is an alternate model of communal politics; is playing its Hindutva/communal card with shrewdness. Kajriwal party is also an example of blind subservience to the dictator by the other leaders of that party. As Kejriwal demanded this; all his cronies, stated saying the same. The peak of this was Atishi Marlena, who stated that this demand of Laxmi-Ganesh is not merely Kejriwal demand, it is the aspiration of 130 crore Indians! Most of the dictatorial tendencies believe they are speaking for the whole country. This is a duplicate of what Narendra Modi, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, used to say that he is talking on behalf of Five Crore Gujratis. India needs a party which can accommodate all sections of society with equality and dignity, apart from welfare; it also promotes employment and proactively deals with marginalized sections of society. We need a party where religion is not mixed with politics. For many, AAP began with a big promise for a better politics, but its reality is there for all to see with its trajectory leading to demanding Laxmi and Ganesh on currency notes and dumping of Jan Lokpal in the dustbin of Hisotry!
2/11/2022
Page 41 of 45
- You are here:
-
Home
- Electoral scene