View Articles

Hindi Belt reins in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, and dashed their hopes of winning 370 seats for the party in the Lok Sabha Election 2024. There are 11 states/UTs in the Hindi Belt – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand – that has altogether 226 Lok Sabha Constituencies, out of which BJP had won 178 seats (NDA-204) in 2019. However, the loss to BJP and NDA, is a clear signal that PM Modi and the BJP can’t take the people of this country granted, even the people of the Hindi Belt.

Telangana voted for Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both parties shared the spoils, i.e., 17 Lok Sabha seats. But it is Andhra Pradesh which will prove crucial in government formation at the Centre, whether by the NDA or by the INDI-Alliance. Andhra Pradesh witnessed complete dominance of the NDA, not the one led by the BJP, but by the one led by the Telugu Desam Party. The TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu played his cards right and he is back in the reckoning – can play a kingmaker role at the Centre following the unexpected results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections that left Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP stranded below simple majority mark.

Rubbishing the results of the exit polls which put BJP ahead of ruling dispensation of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress juggernaut rolled ahead flattening every political outfit that opposed it in the seven phase elections to the Lok Sabha.. Brushing off the initial jitters as the counting began, the TMC surged ahead in most of the seats and likely to be ahead in more.

After the seven-phase elections, the June 1 exit polls indicate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely win big. The INDIA block, a coalition of regional parties, also competed, but its chances were slim. The results on January 4 will reveal the actual winner.

By winning 46 Vidhan Sabha Constituencies out of 60 in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has just upgraded its strategic political citadel Arunachal Pradesh. In terms of seat, it is 5 more than it had won in 2019 Vidhan Sabha election. In terms of vote share, it bagged 54.57 per cent of votes which is an increase of 3.71 per cent during this period. It is shocking for the Indian National Congress (INC), since it was the only major party in the fray that lost both in number of seats and share of votes, thanks to the strategic faults they have committed in the state in particular and in the North East in general, which is a glaring example of how the INC has politically handed the region over to the BJP in the last ten years.

A third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or a first term for Rahul Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s choice for Prime Minister of an INDI-Alliance government in case the June 4 result upsets the one predicted by the exit polls and throws up an “expect the unexpected” outcome. The INDI-Alliance says the exit polls were “rigged” and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called them “Modi Media Poll”, adding that the INDI-Alliance will tally ‘295’, more than enough seats to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Both the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) have rejected the exit poll reports ‘with the contempt they deserve’. These reports are politically motivated and highly biased, say both the fronts which are the main contenders from Kerala.

India witnessed rising contractualisation, privatization and wage deceleration in the public and private sectors during the last ten years from 2014 to 2024. In 2014, during the last year of the UPA government, the top one percent of Indians had 21.4 percent income share, which went up to 22.6 percent in 2022 and their wealth share increased from 30.4 percent to 40.1 percent over the ten years of RSS Pariwar union government. The greater rise in the wealth, compared with the income share of the top one percent reflects acceleration of accumulation of capital under the current fascist dispensation.

It may be time for an Anna Hazare-type agitation to reclaim the integrity and independence of the Election Commission, completely compromised by the incumbent commission like never before.

Apprehensions and expectations of India’s Central Trade Unions (CTUs) have reached their climax at the completion of the Lok Sabha elections on June 1, 2024. Since the fate of trade unionism and the workers’ rights amidst the rising working poverty in the country much depends on the outcome of the election result on June 4, CTUs have reiterated their demands, especially withdrawal of the four controversial labour codes, and asked the workers to be ready to continue their struggle, if the newly constituted government does not meet their demands.