The South India Times
(MS Shanker)
This year saw elections to as many as seven states of which the rightist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recaptured as many as five states out of 7 to include Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Gujarat. The Congress party won in Himachal Pradesh, while the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab.
The key issue to reflect is; How far these five states victories in 2022 – would help boost the morale of BJP to approach with confidence the 10 states (130 Lok Sabha seats) that goes in 2023, ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
Quite certainly, the BJP can win 100 plus LS seats based on its strong performance in the 2022 elections in the 7 States.The ten states that are said to go for polls in 2023, includes; Madhya Pradesh (29), Karnataka (28), Rajasthan (25), and Telangana (17), among others. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 86 of 107 total seats, in these 10 states. If so, it is quite likely that the BJP may repeat the performance in the forthcoming state assembly elections in 2023 followed by Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Thus, the BJP could inch closer to 200 of the 240 Lok Sabha seats from these 17 states – also closer to the required simple majority in the Lok Sabha.
And, the other states which are to go to polls along with Lok Sabha include: Maharashtra (48), West Bengal (42), Bihar (40) Tamil Nadu (39), Andhra Pradesh (25), Odisha (21), Kerala (20), Assam (14), Jharkhand (14), Punjab (13), Haryana (10), and Meghalaya (2) – that is , in total 276.
In 2019, the BJP has managed to win 103 seats to take its tally to 303, which is more than what it had won in 2014 – 276 seats.The BJP emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra and got the required number along with its pre-poll ally Shiv Sena in 2019. However, Shiv Sena later ditched the former due to its greed to stake a claim for the CM’s gaddi. It resulted in a new alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar and the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress. The unholy alliance didn’t last for long and it collapsed for its anti-Hindu policies pursued by Udhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena as Chief Minister, when his party colleagues revolted.
The party colleague, who revolted against Udhav Thackeray, is none other than Eknath Shinde, a staunch follower of late party founder Bal Thackrey, a hardcore Hindutwa ideologue.
It may be worth recalling that the late Bal Thackeray’s biggest-ever statement when a reporter had asked him while he was alive and kicking; “Would you accept to ally with Congress, if offered the CM’s post?” His reply, if one has to believe the newspapers, was bold and blunt; “Never and ever as long as I am alive.” And how, his son, Udhav Thackeray, whom the late leader declared as his political heir against his nephew Raj Thackeray has buried his father’s ideology to accept CM gaddi, is now known to all.
