The BJP registered the highest vote share it has ever had in Tamil Nadu in this election. This could partly be attributed to the simple fact that the party contested a larger number of seats this time. But is that the only reason? My colleague Abhishek Jha and I take a look at the BJP's performance in TN in today's copy of Hindustan Times.
Pour Narendra Modi, une victoire à la Pyrrhus lors des élections indiennes
Favorisé par le matraquage médiatique, les riches industriels et les institutions, le parti nationaliste hindou #BJP n’obtient pourtant qu’une majorité relative au Parlement. Il devra gouverner en coalition et face à une opposition revigorée.
Indian voters reject Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for a one-party state in win for competitive democracy.
CNN reports: "In what opposition parties have declared as a victory for pluralism, voters in the world’s largest democracy partially rejected Modi’s populist vision for a Hindu-first nation, reducing the BJP’s share of the vote by 63 seats – bringing its total down to 240, far below the 272 required for a parliamentary majority."
Tho votes were still being counted Tues afternoon & the Modi-led #BJP could still form the govt, it was projected to fall short of its showing in 2014, when #Modi swept to #power on a wave of national #anger over #corruption, or 2019, when buoyed by #nationalist sentiment over a border clash w/ #Pakistan. Such a result would be rare for the politician who has never failed to secure a majority in a 23+yr political career & cultivates an image as a #populist#strongman & a serial winner. #India
Most analysts expected #Modi to brush aside #India’s enervated & poorly funded opposition parties, some of which had their #bank accounts frozen & their leaders #jailed by the govt in the run-up to the #election.
Yet the mood shifted dramatically as early vote counts trickled in Tues morning & indicated that the #BJP might not single-handedly secure the 272 seats needed in the 543-member #LokSabha lower house, as it comfortably did in 2014 & 2019.
The BJP and BJD, who were allies once, are now locked in a bitter contest for the 21 Parliamentary constituencies and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha. What are the factors driving the Odisha contest? Can the BJP edge past the BJD in the state? Today's Number Theory answer these questions in detail.
the "mota bhai" (he was senior and fat) who was doing the police verification for my passport issuance was a staunch #bjp supporter. he just would not accept my #aadhar card as my address proof. dude unironically, with a straight face, said that aadhar cards can be faked and people have been doing that a lot.
wah #modi ji, wah! this is the "swabhav mein fakeeri".
"A defining feature of life in India today is the suffocating atmosphere of menace and threat to critics of the government. Shah is the face and embodiment of this fear, which lurks everywhere, from the newsrooms to the courtrooms, and which inspires a sense of alarm that is bigger than the sum of the facts and anecdotes that can be amassed to illustrate it"
Chilling long read on the rise of Amit Shah, Modi's right-hand man.
"Partly owing to his days in Gujarat and partly owing to the Indian government’s widely documented use of Israeli spyware to target journalists, activists and critics, the image of Shah in the public imagination is that of a man who holds everyone’s secrets. “Modi has a certain charm, which is perhaps the most dangerous thing about him,” the Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy told me. “Amit Shah is a single-string instrument: the only note he can strike is fear.”
The political landscape in Maharashtra looks vastly different from what it was in 2019. While the BJP on paper is in alliance with the official factions of the 2 biggest regional parties in the state, the factions led by their founders stand against it. The charts below explains how BJP traded uncertainty for influence in Maharashtra.