TRICKY POLITRICKS

  As the results of assembly elections in the states of Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh have been out with the BJP bagging four of the five states and the Aam Aadmi Party forming the government with a record-breaking majority in Punjab, some tropes are bound to follow with the not so surprising results. Formation of a committee by Sonia Gandhi to scrutinize the reasons for the demeaning defeat, primetime shows with absurdly creative headlines discussing for the billionth time how the Modi-Shah duo is unbeatable and the usual frustration and agony of the minorities still looking for a viable option to stand against the BJP juggernaut. By now even the political pundits of tea stalls would have started getting bored with the no masala elections being delivered by the political dispensation. Courtesy: Onmanorama Though, these election results were pretty soothing for the channels banking on their exit polls to be the most accurate, for a political nerd what lies in t...

Today there are not many leaders in India on the national level who can challenge the cult of Narendra Modi and the juggernaut of BJP. But similar cults around leaders have been established in various states. Bengal was one such state where Mamata Banerjee owns the assembly, where BJP’s ‘ rath yatra ’ was stopped by her cult. A similar cult can be seen in Kerala where Pinarayi Vijayan was successful in breaking the one-term rule in the 2021 assembly elections, but it was a direct confrontation between LDF and UDF as BJP had no prospects in the state. Courtesy: Bloomberg Other than Bengal if there is any state where BJP was denied power even after regressive campaigning by leaders like J.P Nadda, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi himself then it is Delhi. Results of Delhi assembly are even significant than Bengal because of its proximity to Hindi heartland, demography and a largely Hindu middle-class population, a section that constitutes the core of BJP vote bank.  This feat was achieved...