Modi’s party will do well in next state polls

The nationally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its opponents are gearing up for five state elections in early 2022

Author(s):  
Afroz Ahmad ◽  
Usha Roopnarain

The last Indian parliamentary election held in 2014, proved to be the finest example of India’s age-old commitment towards the pinnacle of democratic norms. India had set a niche by conducting the largest democratic franchise in history. First time ever since the 1984, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved the majority in the Lok Sabha without clubbing with coalition partners. It also got the absolute mandate to rule India’s federal government by ending the Congress monopoly. Interestingly, the Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in his campaigns criticized Congress-led United Progressive Alliance II (UPA II) for its impotency towards establishing friendly and cooperative relations with India’s neighbors. He also gave assurance that if his party (BJP) got the mandate, his leadership would adopt appropriate measures to resuscitate convivial ties with neighbors. Since forming the government, Prime Minister Modi has been persistently trying to pursue those promises by proceeding towards friendly ties with India’s neighbors. In the light of above discussion, this paper seeks to critically analyze the progress in Indo-Nepal relations under BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 166-169
Author(s):  
Vasant V. Bang ◽  
Alok Kumar Mishra

Since independence in 1947, India has witnessed several changes in economic policies of governments. Economic reforms were started in India in 1984 and were accelerated later in 1991. It is believed that Bharatiya Janata Party won the 2014 parliamentary elections on the promise of economic development and growth. In this article, an attempt has been made to investigate the link between economic and electoral performances in Indian elections. The data for 1951–2014 period has been analysed by establishing regression equations using vote percentage received by a ruling party as dependent variable and sectoral economic growth during the ruling tenure as independent variables. Comparisons have been made between the pre- and post-1984 eras. An important contribution of this article is that it highlights the fact that electoral performances can be better explained using sectoral growth data as compared to overall GDP growth rates. The article also highlights a significant role played by volatility in growth rates.


Significance Each of these states except Punjab has a government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Punjab is one of just three states with a chief minister that belongs to India’s main opposition Congress party. Impacts A poor showing by Congress would further reduce its leverage with other opposition parties in talks over forming a broad anti-Modi alliance. Victory in UP would enhance Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s national profile. Election campaigning will likely lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Prashanth Bhat

Widespread dissemination of hate speech on corporate social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has necessitated technological companies to moderate content on their platforms. At the receiving end of these content moderation efforts are supporters of right-wing populist parties, who have gained notoriety for harassing journalists, spreading disinformation, and vilifying liberal activists. In recent months, several prominent right-wing figures across the world were removed from social media - a phenomenon also known as ‘deplatforming’- for violating platform policies. Prominent among such right-wing groups are online supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, who have begun accusing corporate social media of pursuing a ‘liberal agenda’ and ‘curtailing free speech.’ In response to deplatforming, the BJP-led Government of India has aggressively promoted and embraced Koo, an indigenously developed social media platform. This commentary examines the implications of this alternative social platform for the online communicative environment in the Indian public sphere.


Author(s):  
R. Thirunavukkarasu

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be an insignificant entity in the electoral arena of Tamil Nadu as the party won only one seat in the 2014 parliamentary elections. However, its efforts to expand its support base in the state where ideologically hostile political dispensations have near hegemonic presence demand a thorough scrutiny. BJP’s endeavours to expand by vernacularizing itself are arguably met with resistance, yet the party’s desperation to project itself as a Tamilized Hindutva party must be dissected. While tracing the genealogy of the BJP’s electoral performance and its modus operandi to expand its support base, this chapter elaborates a two-way process of ‘vernacularization’ and ‘pan-Indianization’.


2019 ◽  
pp. 206-233
Author(s):  
Bidyut Chakrabarty ◽  
Bhuwan Kumar Jha

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-22
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar

The verdict of 2019 indicates that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not only managed to retain its support base which it built in 2014, but also expanded it both geographically and socially. It managed to win seats in states where it had not performed well in earlier elections, and to get more votes amongst communities which had not voted for it earlier. The Congress could not improve upon its 2014 performance, but it is important to note that neither its votes nor its tally of seats decreased. The BJP improved upon its performance of 2014 largely at the cost of regional parties. The combined vote share of the regional parties witnessed a decline. Some regional parties did manage to hold onto their support base but others could not secure the support base they had held in 2014. In states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Karnataka and Maharashtra, the regional parties performed badly despite some of them having formed an anti-BJP alliance. The BJP’s gain in terms of vote share and seats, largely at the expense of regional parties in many states, begins a new debate about whether this is the beginning of the end of the dominance of regional parties in the North Indians states, or if it is a passing phase in Indian elections. If this decline in the importance of the regional parties is largely in respect of national elections, could there be a reversal in the trend during state assembly elections?


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyas Sardesai

This article attempts to empirically test the claims made by several commentators that religious polarization was at the core of the 2019 Lok Sabha election verdict. Relying heavily on the National Election Study (NES) data sets, it finds that the election result was in large measure an outcome of massive vote consolidation on religious lines, with the majority Hindu community preferring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in unprecedented proportion and the main religious minorities largely staying away from it, although there were some exceptions. It shows that, for two national elections in a row, the Narendra Modi- and Amit Shah-led BJP has been able to overcome the caste hierarchies among Hindus and systematically construct a Hindu category of voters versus others. This chasm between Hindus and the minorities is also seen with respect to their attitudes regarding the government, its leadership and contentious issues like the Ayodhya dispute. This article, however, does not find sufficient evidence with regard to the claims that a large part of the Hindu support for the BJP-led alliance may have been on account of anti-minority sentiments.


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