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The elections for the18th Lok Sabha are taking place in a context which is extremely crucial for our country. A lot depends on how our country will decide about the survival of our Constitution and Parliamentary democracy. A plethora of rhetoric and empty promises are going to be hurled at the people of the country using every means possible by the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Some of the most salient issues are likely to sink in this money created din. If the last 10 years are any clue, the BJP’s continuation in power will mean a death knell for the values enshrined in our Constitution like ensuring common welfare, equality and also secularism.

The 93-member Maldivian Parliament, People's Majlis, is now having the supermajority (more than three-fourths of total seats) of the People’s National Congress (PNC), the party that President Mohamed Muizzu belongs to. In the general elections on Sunday, PNC won 71 seats out of 93. Together with its coalition partners, Muizzu’s party has 75 members in the parliament. The opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) is reduced to only 12 seats from 65 in the previous parliament.

At the fag end of second phase campaign of Lok Sabha election 2024 scheduled on April 26, PM Narendra Modi’s stronghold Hindi heartland states are emanating signals that they are heading for a clipping of his poll ambitions. BJP’s performance in the first phase of election in these states was frustrating, which resulted in PM Modi’s uncalled for tirade against Muslims in a bid to polarize Hindu votes in his favour. However, it seemed helping him only a little in the second phase against INDIA bloc’s aggressive election campaigns.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vicious attack against the Muslims, the largest minority community in the country at the election rally in Rajasthan on Sunday misquoting a statement of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006, has crossed all limits of the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The vulgar and motivated wrong presentation of a crucial issue by a person of Prime Minister’s stature need immediate action by the EC in terms of barring the PM from the poll campaign for a few days.

The current heatwave seems to have far overtaken the ongoing Lok Sabha election wave with political combinations such as the NDA and the INDIA are increasingly uncertain about their positions as the heatwave is certain to have an impact on the participation of voters in the election process. Nearly a month-and-a-half-long gruelling election schedule from April 19 to June 1 will go through the hottest recorded summer season this year with day temperatures already soaring above 40 degrees Celsius in several parts of the country.

Artificial Intelligence, a game-changer in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, has revolutionised traditional campaign strategies. The era of candidates personally visiting voters' homes and engaging in conversations over tea, even after a five-year hiatus, has given way to a more technologically advanced approach.

“Infiltrators” from Bangladesh and Myanmar weren’t evicted in 10 years of muscular Modi rule. Instead, large numbers of the “termites” were beneficiaries of Modi’s welfare schemes including free monthly rations, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Modi’s LPG, Modi’s LED bulbs and Modi’s jan-dhan yojana bank accounts. So, why the fear-mongering that if Congress comes, the tribe of “infiltrators” and “those with more children” will be recipients of “redistributed assets”?

The electorate turnout being down by 4 percent in the first phase of 2024 Lok Sabha election relative to phase 1 of 2019 has three distinct messages: first, voters have outright rejected Narendra Modi’s constricted rhetoric on polarisation of Hindu votes; second, youths have lost faith in Modi’s purple prose on soon-to-be-five-trillion-dollar-economy India; and third, registered their lack of faith in EVM ensuring a free and fair democratic mandate.

Lok Sabha election in Rajasthan would conclude in the second phase of election on April 26.BJP is contesting on its own with a belief that the party would be easily able to win all the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, but the party finds itself struggling with very aggressive concerted attack from INDIA bloc. Though three pre-poll surveys have predicted that BJP would win all the seats from the state, ground reality indicates the party seemed on the slippery ground on 9 seats, while on 3 others the party is finding itself in great difficulties in defending.

Despite her best efforts, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s elaborate campaign to project her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party as the strongest, most credible political alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam, has once more run into trouble.