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The trends from the polling in the last six phases of the Lok Sabha elections do suggest the emergence of a hung 17th Lok Sabha with neither NDA nor UPA getting anywhere near majority while the regional parties will be playing the key role in ensuring majority to any of the combinations. The exact position will be clear after May 23 when the results will be declared, but the situation can be accessed on the basis of a few possible scenarios.

Peace organizations and government leaders around the world are warning that the Trump administration is steamrolling toward the same disaster the U.S. rushed into in Iraq 16 years ago and in Vietnam generations before that. The heightened fear of imminent war was raised even more last night following a New York Times report that Trump is studying a plan by his war hawk national security adviser, John Bolton, to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East in anticipation of a fight against Iran.

The African National Congress has been returned to power after bruising national and provincial elections that saw it fend off competition from the main opposition parties, the larger center-right Democratic Alliance and the populist left Economic Freedom Fighters.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

On 10th May, 2019, a division bench of Supreme Court passed a landmark verdict on the issue of reservation in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in public employment. Writing the opinion, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud examines the notion of substantive equality that permeates our entire Constitution, and how reservation as a policy only serves to advance substantive equality, and not derail it.

Just when we thought Mani Shankar Aiyar has been inexplicably missing from action, out he pops up in print and we’ve the original ‘divider’, not the divider-in-chief, but the purveyor and symbol of the divide that splits India. Aiyar is the tip of the aristocratic-iceberg that never slips on the tongue. He articulates the divide. He’s the self-proclaimed guardian of a ruling class under attack from multiple forces which would not have dared to pose a challenge before Mandal and Mandir splintered society and polity.

Donald Trump voiced the real concerns of many Americans when he spoke of the need to bring jobs to communities and to end unfair trade deals. By blocking the Trans-Pacific Partnership, pushing a re-negotiation of NAFTA, and increasing tariffs on a range of imports, Trump has appeared to finally take seriously the needs of unemployed and underemployed workers.

Uttar Pradesh which is considered as the king maker state in terms of formation of a government at the centre after every Lok Sabha election, might repeat its feat when the results come out on May 23 indicating the nature of formation of the 17th Lok Sabha. In 2014, BJP set a record in getting 71 seats on its own out of the total of 80 seats in UP and that along with another two seats won by its ally Apna Dal, facilitated in a big way the formation of the BJP led NDA government at the centre.

The 2019 elections are coming to a close and on May 23 it will be known who forms the government. The Rs 1000-crore satta bazaar is predicting that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party and that the Congress will improve, and the regional parties will continue to be powerful. In 2014, there was an atmosphere of “vote out the corrupt Manmohan Singh government”. In 2019, Prime Minister Modi is defending his throne. There was a ‘Modi wave’ then which is absent today but Modi has subsumed the party, which is asking for votes in his name. Modi was untested then and sold a big dream to the people promising “Achche din”. This time it is not a cakewalk as there is disenchantment among the voters. The 2019 election outcome depends on three things – performance of the BJP in the Hindi heartland where it lost three states (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh) to Congress in 2018, effectiveness of the regional satraps to hold their fiefdoms, and BJP’s ability to make up the deficit in eastern parts of India.

BJP is given to exasperation, the opposition to an unprecedented hope, and the people to a spectre of an uncertain political direction by the first six rounds of voting for the 17th Lok Sabha. The seventh and the last phase of election, for which votes will be cast on May 19, is only to expose BJP to a greater frustration. Several of the 59 constituencies spread over 8 states/UTs going to poll are likely to brighten a little the prospect of the UPA, but they will be still far behind the NDA, both with the numbers much less than the required 272 seats to form a government. The INC and the parties and alliances outside the NDA and UPA are gaining at the cost of BJP.