- As it is, Indian citizens are quite familiar with various elections happening around the year in one or the other form. It could be the local village panchayat, municipal or corporation, taluk or zilla panchayat, state assembly, legislative council, Rajya Sabha, and the mother of all elections, Lok Sabha. The Election Commission of India, in collaboration with state Election Commissions, is in charge of both conducting a fair and orderly election as well as registering eligible voters. To be fair, the Election Commission deserves praise for adopting a methodical strategy to carry out the difficult task of supervising the votes without any significant hiccups. Elections, as you are aware, are one advantage of a democratic form of governance.
PC: Mohana Sakthivel J
- Now any democratic form of governance also entails the existence of several political parties at the national as well as regional levels. As you are aware, the Grand Old Party dominated the Indian political landscape at the national level for most of the time following independence. Of course, there were opposition parties too but none were so well organized and represented far and wide across the country’s landscape as Congress did during its heydays. The opposition benches were portrayed by the erstwhile Jan Sangh which has metamorphosed into a formidable unit called the Bharatiya Janata Party now. If Congress stood for secularism, The BJP is not afraid to take on donning the communal hat and nationalism as its core ideologies.
- Ever since the BJP assumed power at the Centre in 2014, Congress has been on a steady decline losing out on its once formidable invincibility factor owing to the emergence of strong regional satraps. Nonetheless, Congress continues to be the principal opposition party attempting to cobble up a strong unity with like-minded parties to challenge the uninterrupted march of the saffron brigade. As such, every election during current times assumes importance since the Lok Sabha polls are due next year. Thus, the Karnataka election scheduled for May 2023 is being touted as one of the semifinals leading up to the big election. Mind you, crucial elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhatisgarh are scheduled during the latter part of the year.
PC: Louise Tillin
- The moot point to ponder over here is whether the diverse opposition parties, headed by ambitious regional leaders with their agenda, agree to come under a single common umbrella to pose a formidable challenge to the BJP’s election juggernaut. The obvious answer is no. Because the most crucial and significant component separating the ruling dispensation and the diverse group of opposition parties from win or loss is the ex-factor of the BJP’s charismatic and extremely popular leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It will be a monumental challenge for the opposition group to topple the Modi government since the NDA dispensation has delivered numerous welfare schemes much to the delight of the citizens. Maybe the 2029 polls!
