In what was touted as a semifinal before the national elections in 2024 in India, the assembly elections in five states including the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the right wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is set to form government four out of the five states.
Uttar Pradesh
Bharatiya Janata Party is set to retain the State of Uttar Pradesh. The party leading in 270 seats out of 403 seats, while Samajwadi Party maintains a lead in 129 constituencies.
Indian National Congress managed to win only two seats.
Punjab
The centrist Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) appears to be heading for a clean sweep in Punjab having taken a lead in 92 of the 117 assembly seats.
The ruling Congress has been decimated in Punjab with only 18 seats. BJP managed to secure only 2 seats.
Punjab witnessed a strong four-way battle with Congress undergoing a split months before the elections. The State was the hotbed for farmers protests.
Uttarakhand
In the Himalayan state ofUttarakhand the ruling BJP is set to retain power with 48 seats in 70 seat assembly. The congress managed to secure 18 seats.
Goa
In the South Western state of Goa BJP is set to form government. It has secured 20 seats in a 40 member assembly. Congress managed to secure 12 seats in the state.
Manipur
In the North East state of Manipur BJP has secured 30 seats in the 60 seat assembly. It is sure to form government with the support independents and others.
Political observers stunned
The results have stunned political observers with the price rise, the soaring unemployment, the inept handling of the Covid pandemic and the year long farmers protest seemed to have turned the fortunes of BJP. However, the BJP turned communities into each other, especially othering the minority muslims with issues like Hijab row in Karnataka.
Political observer and well known ecologist S Faizi was forthright in his comments,
Democracy and the Constitutional values stand buried, with the passive help of the party that founded the Indian republic.
India now is the Germany of the 1930s. Actually worse. Hitler and his party had a career of only 20 yrs, but here India is taken over by a political formation a good 100 yrs old.
It was global solidarity that helped end Nazism. It was global democratic support that ended Apartheid. Global solidarity is warranted to redeem India from the fascist clutch.
