R Muthu Kumar
The Congress’s impressive Telangana victory in this election cycle has been completely overshadowed by its losses in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The results have strengthened the BJP’s position ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress and its ideological fellow-travellers must answer some questions before they get back to the 2024 campaign.
A segment of the Congress leadership and the left-liberal commentariat continues to insist that democracy in India is increasingly coming under a squeeze. While one can always debate about what the ideal state of democracy is and whether it ever existed in India, the state of purely transactional electoral democracy seems to be absolutely fine even from the Congress’s perspective. It has won the state of Telangana in this election cycle, and even though it has lost Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, its vote share – the best measure of popular support in an electoral democracy – in these three states is actually higher than what it is in Telangana. The Congress’s problem is that the BJP’s popular support is much higher than that its own in the states it has lost. Even before these elections, the Congress has been able to defeat the BJP in other state elections. Where the Congress party has failed completely in the post-2014 period is to get its own state governments re-elected.
The three states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — won by the BJP are considered part of the Hindi heartland. Telangana, the second Telugu state, was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
And the Cong win shows that North is not with Congress anymore, but South seems to be anti BJP !
BJP is now countering with argument that the Dynastic Congress party’s agenda to divide Bharat on caste lines and uproot #SanatanaDharma , has been outrightly rejected by our people.
One of the Congress’s running criticisms of the BJP has been that the party is pro-rich and anti-poor especially anti-farmer. And yet, the biggest reason the Congress has not been able to hold on to its Chhattisgarh victory of 2018 seems to be a course-correction by the BJP to announce a bonus over and above the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy farmers in the state.
Several poll watchers, including politicians and journalists, pointed out what they alleged to be a North-South divide in the Assembly poll results.
The truth is that all Southern regional players are on their own strength, not because they are anti-BJP or anti-Congress
The BJP’s claim that Congress is dead, well that is surely not the situation, Congress is far from dead in the country!
Congress continues to be the major challenger to the BJP in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Assam, Karnataka, and perhaps even Maharashtra, which is almost 200 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country.
That truth is Congress is the biggest challenger to the BJP.
Now Congress needs to work a strategy to face the good will and clean image of Prime Minister Modi and pitch a viable alternative as PM candidate, well can Rahul and co decide on such a face and do the INDIA alliance can get its act together?
The tall image of nation-building Narendra Modi is what the BJP is touting in front of voters and well it’s selling ike hot cake for sure!
There is no South and North India, West or East India. There is just Bharat and its people who are are the masters who decide our rulers, so let the political bashing end and may the democracy win.
Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy is set to become the next chief minister of the southern state, as announced by the party.
In Mizoram, Zoram Peoples’ Movement (ZPM) President Lalduhoma is poised to become the next chief minister of Mizoram following his party’s resounding victory in the recent state assembly elections. The ZPM, in the opposition, secured 27 seats out of 40, overshadowing the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) which claimed 10 seats, relegating them to a distant second. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress each secured 2 seats in the assembly.
However, the BJP is confronted with the crucial task of selecting potential chief ministerial candidates to lead new cabinets for the upcoming five years. In Rajasthan, BJP faces a challenging decision among Vasundhara Raje, Diya Kumari, and Baba Balaknath, or it might introduce an unexpected candidate. In Chhattisgarh, veteran leader Raman Singh is considered a strong contender for the chief ministerial role. Similarly, four-time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is likely to make a return for his fifth term.
