Read the full story here:
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The results of the state elections are in, and here are my big takeaways. First, that
00:10as far as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are concerned, Prime Minister Modi and the BJP
00:15are clearly far ahead, and it looks like they will come back for a third term. If you look
00:20at the Madhya Pradesh elections in particular, it's quite remarkable that the BJP has come
00:24back, beating almost 20 years of incumbency. It's a historic victory for Shivraj Chauhan
00:31and for the BJP leadership. The second big takeaway is that these results are a huge
00:36blow to the opposition India alliance and to the Congress, barring the Congress party's
00:40performance in Telangana, where it has won big. Now, if you look at the Congress in particular,
00:47it seems that the party got both arrogant and complacent after its win in Karnataka
00:51earlier this year. Party leaders were sure that they were going to retain Shaktisgarh
00:56and that they were going to win Madhya Pradesh back from the BJP. The opposite has happened.
01:01The India Alliance in the process has also suffered in the last few months. They haven't
01:05met since the end of August. And on the day of the election results, suddenly Congress
01:10President Malik Arjun Kharge called up India Alliance leaders asking for a meeting next
01:15week. What these results will do now is to really reduce the Congress's bargaining power
01:21within the India bloc. That will be relief to some of their allies, but bad news certainly
01:26for the Congress party. The third thing is, as far as issues are concerned, because it's
01:31clear that the caste censors, the issue of attacking Gautam Adani's links with Mr. Modi,
01:38these really didn't resonate with voters for the opposition. And that will be something
01:43of a worry as we head into the Lok Sabha elections for the opposition camp, because they've really
01:47been banking on the OBC vote and on the need for a caste census as being key in attracting
01:54voters to the opposition bloc. The fact that this hasn't worked at the state level right
01:58now is something that they will need to recalibrate. Then there is also the fact that as far as
02:06the BJP is concerned, its election machinery and organization is clearly way, way superior
02:11to that of the Congress party. The party, despite facing incumbency, for example, in
02:16Madhya Pradesh for so many years, was able to convince people of a pro-incumbency narrative.
02:22And even though there was voter fatigue with Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his four terms as
02:26chief minister at the beginning of the campaign, the party was also flexible enough to give
02:31him credit and to bring him back into the campaign fold as things went on, when they
02:36realized that actually a lot of his schemes that were directed towards women were actually
02:41very popular and resonating with people. These are some of the takeaways that I see
02:47in the immediate aftermath of these election results. Still a lot to analyze over the next
02:51few days and weeks. We'll be doing that as we go along.