Tag: ELECTION RESULTS 2021

Jolarpet Election Result 2021 LIVE: How to check Jolarpet assembly (Vidhan Sabha) election winners, losers, vote margin, news updates

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Jolarpet is an Assembly constituency in the Vellore district, in the North region of Tamil Nadu.

The Jolarpet constituency went to polls on April 6, 2021.

Check out Jolarpet latest election update live on this page.

In the 2016 Assembly elections, Jolarpet was won by Veeramani K.C. of AIADMK.

Before that, in the 2011 elections too, the seat was held by Veeramani.

In the 2016 assembly polls, Veeramani garnered 82525 votes, securing over 45.57 percent of the vote share, and winning the seat by a margin of 10991 votes.

In percentage terms, the victory margin was 6.07 percent.

The constituency polled 181137 votes in the 2016 Tamil Nadu assembly polls with a voter turnout of 81.05 percent.

The Jolarpet constituency has a literacy level of 79.65 percent.

A total of 13 candidates stood in the 2016 elections.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

HIGHLIGHTS: Mamata takes oath in Bengal; DMK chief Stalin oath ceremony on May 7

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Govt formation HIGHLIGHTS: TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was Wednesday sworn-in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive term after a massive win in the state assembly elections. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered her the oath of office and secrecy at a low-key ceremony at Raj Bhawan held amid the raging COVID pandemic.

Banerjee took the oath in the Bengali language. Apart from senior TMC leaders like Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee, poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who played a key role in TMC’s victory, and Banerjee MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee were present.

Banerjee has said her first priority after resuming office will be to tackle the COVID-19 situation.

Here are the highlights from Mamata Banerjee’s Oath Ceremony and government formation in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry as well:

• Stalin calls on TN Guv, stakes claim to form govt: DMK president M K Stalin on Wednesday called on Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhavan here and staked claim to form the government, a day after he was unanimously elected leader of the legislature party. Stalin, along with party veteran and general secretary Duraimurugan called on Purohit and gave him a letter on his
  election as leader of the DMK legislature party and staked claim to form the government, a party release said. DMK treasurer T R Baalu, principal secretary K N Nehru and organisation secretary R S Bharathi accompanied Stalin.

Tamil Nadu: DMK President MK Stalin meets Governor Banwarilal Purohit to stake claim to form government pic.twitter.com/f5UCknbdKx

— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2021

• The DMK chief is set to assume office as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on May 7 and he would be sworn in as CM in a simple function to be held at the Raj Bhavan. Stalin was elected leader of the DMK legislature party here on Tuesday.
• The DMK won 133 seats in the Assembly polls and along with allies including Congress garnered a total of 159 constituencies in the 234-member  assembly. The AIADMK won 66 segments and its partners BJP and PMK
  four and five seats respectively.
• Bengal’s administrative machinery was under Election Commission, now we will tackle disturbances: Mamata on political violence.
• Our first priority is to end horrendous post-poll violence in the state: Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Mamata’s oath-taking ceremony.
• West Bengal Governor: “I congratulate Mamata Ji on her third term. Our priority is that we must bring an end to this senseless violence that has affected society at large. I have every hope that the CM on an urgent basis will take all steps to restore rule of law.”
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “Congratulations to Mamata Didi on taking oath as West Bengal’s Chief Minister,” he tweeted.

“Congratulations to Mamata Didi on taking oath as West Bengal’s Chief Minister,” tweets Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(File photos) pic.twitter.com/6IwbrT9sUF

— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2021

• Mamata Banerjee takes oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for a third consecutive term. She was administered the oath by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Mamata Banerjee takes oath as the Chief Minister of #WestBengal for a third consecutive term. She was administered the oath by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. pic.twitter.com/IXy05xNZPZ

— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2021

• The swearing-in of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee as chief minister at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday morning will be a low-key programme given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a government official said.
• Invitations for the programme have been sent to her predecessor Buddhadeb  Bhattacharjee, leader of Opposition of the outgoing House Abdul Mannan and CPI(M) veteran leader Biman Bose, the official said on Tuesday.
• Chief ministers of other states and leaders of other political parties have not been invited for the programme keeping in mind the current COVID-19 situation in the country, he said. “It has been decided to keep the oath-taking ceremony of Mamata Banerjee a very simple one because of the COVID-19  pandemic. Banerjee will be the only leader who will be taking oath tomorrow. The programme will be a very brief one,” he said.
• Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, poll strategist Prashant Kishor and party leader Firhad Hakim are likely to be present at the ceremony scheduled to be held at the Raj Bhavan at around 10.45 a m on May 5, TMC sources said.
• BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has also been invited for the ceremony, the official said. Soon after taking oath, Banerjee will go to the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ where she will be given ‘guard of honour’ by Kolkata Police, sources said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Beyond Binaries: What the recent assembly poll results suggest for national politics

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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What larger message do the recently-concluded elections in four states and one union territory bring us, particularly after the dust of breaking news has settled?

The answer to this depends on how we wish to make sense of it.

There are two ways of reading election results. One, to see each result as an atomistic event, with the simple question of who won or who lost being the end of the analysis.

The other is to see an election as part of a process and see whether it captures a larger trend.

It is the second method that actually helps understand politics. As for the first, many news reports and WhatsApp messages regarding the results have done to death the atomistic analysis.

BJP: the larger picture

The most important trend that the present round of elections captures is the gradually deepening eastern expansion of the BJP, which exactly a decade back was seen as a party of north, central and western India, with the sole conquest of Karnataka in the south.

Exactly 10 years back, the BJP was virtually non-existent in Bengal and Assam, two important states of the east. In the 2011 assembly elections, the BJP secured 4-percent votes in Bengal and 11-percent votes in Assam. It won five seats in Assam in 2011 and drew a blank in Bengal.

It was just three years after this that the expansion of the BJP began and it swept north India—particularly populous Uttar Pradesh—in what is called the Modi wave in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. While north India stayed with the BJP, the impact of the wave gradually radiated towards the eastern states, which the BJP had been focusing on.

In 2016, the BJP won Assam for the first time. It has retained Assam for the second time now, securing about 43-percent votes per seat it contested. In a sign that national convergence is now fuelling politics in India, the BJP is the prime party in Assam while the AGP, which had risen in the heady days of the AASU agitation, plays second fiddle to the national party.

Many see the Bengal elections as symptomatic of strong regional sentiment, but they are off the mark. The strong insider-vs-outsider discourse in Bengal was actually a result of the emerging national convergence, which made an entrenched TMC take recourse to regionalism to resist BJP expansion. To read it as growing regionalisation of politics is as fallacious as reading the beginning of casteism in the public sphere in Mandal: the Mandal Commission just disturbed the status quo of upper caste hegemony, making caste visible, rather than infusing casteism in public discourse.

The pattern of the north Indian wave radiating to Bengal has been slower than Assam but a clear phenomenon. Scoring a blank in 2011, the BJP could win just three seats in Bengal in 2016, securing 10-percent votes. However, in 2021, the BJP has breached Bengal and made it bipolar. With the left and Congress together drawing a blank in Bengal, the BJP has secured 38-percent votes, winning 77 seats. The transfer of left and Congress votes seems to have made the TMC surge ahead in the polls, increasing its vote percentage to 47-48 despite Mamata Banerjee losing her own election in Nandigram.

This paradox suggests that a lot of last-minute vote transfer—and the stronger organisation of the TMC—ensured that Mamata Banerjee could return as Chief Minister for the third time. However, the larger picture remains the rise of the BJP, which has increased its seat tally 26-fold and its vote share four-fold, suggesting that a north Indian party has now reached Bengal as a major political force.

In sync with what I wrote in an earlier piece for this news organisation, a unique Bengal model of Hindutva is visible this time. A party that took cities and the upper castes first in the north, central and western India has entrenched itself better among subaltern caste groups in the eastern states. The final results show that about half of the seats the BJP won have come in SC/ST reserved constituencies, suggesting that while it could sway Dalits and tribals, it failed to move the greater Kolkata region, which houses not just the state’s only mega-city but is the hub of the Bhadralok, a category that is on the surface suggestive of some genteel traits but is largely upper-caste heavy as it primarily captures the cultural aspirations of Brahmins, Kayastha and Baidyas.

However, contrary to what many are claiming in the euphoria of the election results, Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to emerge as a challenger to the BJP. There are two reasons for this. One, Banerjee is a quintessential regional leader who cannot influence any state bordering Bengal on any side. Second, even if the BJP were to decline in 2024 and the coalition era returns, other regional parties are likely to choose a low-profile regional leader rather than an ambitious and high-profile Mamata Banerjee. This is what happened in 1996-97, when HD Devegowda and IK Gujral, rather than a high-profile regional leader, became Prime Minister.

The challenge to the BJP is not Mamata Banerjee at present. The real challenge is the raging pandemic, which seems to have spiraled out of control even as elections and the Haridwar Kumbh took place. The reverses the BJP has suffered in the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat polls are the real warning sign for the party, though it is too early to say whether these will result in reverses in the UP assembly elections next year.

Muslim votes

The Modi wave has also been marked by Hindu-Muslim polarisation on a large scale. In Assam, the Congress entered into a tie-up with the AIUDF to ensure that Bengali-speaking Muslims, found in large numbers in the Barak Valley and Lower Assam, did not split. However, given the deep unease among Assamese Hindus who see Bengali speakers as a threat to what they consider the cultural specificities of the state, a counter-polarisation of Hindus ended up seeing the BJP through. Ajmal is often seen by Assamese speakers as a symbol of what they consider the Bengali ‘invasion’ of the state. The sentiment is more linguistic than religious, but the Congress-AIUDF alliance helped in polarisation that helped the BJP.

In Bengal, a recent trend witnessed in Bihar was bucked. If Muslims chose the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi over the RJD in five constituencies in the Muslim-heavy Seemanchal region, they stuck to the prime challenger of the BJP, the TMC, in Bengal, completely ignoring the Indian Secular Forum of Abbas Siddiqui, the cleric of the Furfura Sharif shrine. This suggests that Muslim voters are sticking to the prime ‘secular’ challenger to the BJP rather than trying out parties that are perceived as ‘Muslim-centric’.

The CPI (M)

This election brought both good and bad news for an embattled CPI (M). But, on the balance, the good news trumps the bad news. While the party drew a blank in Bengal, once its bastion where it had been in power for 34 years, it won Kerala, bucking the trend of the state alternating between the CPI (M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF. Perhaps Pinarayi Vijayan’s handling of the COVID crisis in the state—and his effective communication of the handling— helped the party. It is being widely reported that while many states are running short of oxygen, Kerala had taken timely steps to ramp up oxygen supplies to face the second wave.

The Congress

The woes of the Congress continued even in this round of assembly polls. It lost both Kerala and Assam, where it has been a force and drew a blank in Bengal, where its traditional votes in the Malda-Murshidabad region shifted to the TMC in a bipolar contest.

The Congress can take some solace in Tamil Nadu, as it is part of the DMK-led alliance, but the engine of the alliance is undoubtedly the DMK.

If the Congress does not get its act together to become an alternative to the BJP as a national party, the Hindutva wave may continue in India in the coming years, unless the pandemic damages the prospects of the ruling party.

Only time will tell how the pandemic—which has made health infrastructure collapse—affects the BJP in the coming months.

—Vikas Pathak has been a political journalist for a decade-and-a-half and teaches at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. The views expressed are personal

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pinarayi Vijayan steers LDF home again in Kerala breaking a decades-long jinx

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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There were no surprises in Kerala. All forecasts and exit polls predicted a victory for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the LDF romped home with plenty to spare. In the process, the LDF broke a decades-long jinx of no party retaining power. Kerala has always alternated between the LDF and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) at every election.

The BJP, which had one seat in the outgoing Assembly and hoped to improve its tally, drew a blank. The party had roped in former Delhi Metro chief, E. Sreedharan, popularly known as ‘Metroman’, to contest the elections from Palakkad. He too was unsuccessful. Just like in Tamil Nadu, where the two Dravidian parties hold sway, in Kerala, it is only the LDF and the UDF that matter.

There were many factors that contributed to the LDF’s triumph, the most important of which was how Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan handled the fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown and how he kept communicating with the people on what the government was doing. The LDF Government provided food kits that included essential grocery items to all ration card holders irrespective of their income. This struck the right chord with all sections of the population.

Also, the Left Front dropped a couple of senior ministers from its list of candidates in line with the Left’s policy of not giving more than two terms to its MLAs. This sent out a clear message to the party rank-and-file and to the Opposition. Consequently, the Left Front was able to field a few new and young faces. The resounding victory in the local body polls late last year probably set the template for the LDF for the Assembly elections. Pinarayi Vijayan roped in a few smaller parties, despite opposition from some of the Left Front constituents, all of which have paid dividends in the Assembly election.

The Congress did not learn its lessons. It was a divided house and the UDF was in no position to project a chief ministerial candidate, which too contributed to its defeat. The Congress has marginally improved its vote share in the elections to 25.12 percent from 23.70 percent in 2016 but dropped a seat in its tally to 21 now. The IUML, which is part of the UDF, increased its vote share from 7.4 percent in 2016 to 8.27 percent, saw its tally falling from 18 to 15 seats. The LDF has 99 members in the 140-member house and the UDF the remaining.

ALSO READ | Where would Congress go from here?

Chief Minister Vijayan was under tremendous pressure after a senior bureaucrat in his office was arrested in the gold smuggling case. That it did not impact the election outcome even though it was a major campaign issue was thanks to the deft handling of the matter by the Chief Minister. The LDF government hired professional agencies to highlight and propagate its achievements and successes.

There will be a few new faces in the LDF Government when it is sworn in, but the reassuring aspect for the people is that there will be continuity in the administration in the State, which is recording a large number of coronavirus cases daily.

The challenges for Vijayan in his second term will be to deal with the Covid pandemic and ensure that the numbers are brought down in double-quick time. During the first wave, the Government was able to divert funds from various infrastructure projects for covid relief. How long will it be able to do so is a big question. The State’s economy is dependent on remittances from Keralites working in the Gulf countries, tourism and the plantation sector. With tourism unlikely to take off in the near future and remittances likely to drop further due to the reverse migration of workers from the Gulf, the State’s finances will take a long time to recover. From where the government will find the money to fund the continued Covid relief work is a big question.

ALSO READ | A change of guard in Tamil Nadu

For the Congress, this defeat should come as a major embarrassment especially since its leader Rahul Gandhi had spent a lot of time campaigning in the State. The party had done exceptionally well in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections winning 19 of the 20 seats with Rahul Gandhi himself winning from Wayanad. Even before the election, there was clamour for a change of leadership at the State level and the induction of fresh, young faces. Now that demand will grow louder as the party has to sit it out in the opposition for another five years.

The BJP too spent a lot of time and resources in Kerala, hoping for consolidation of Hindu votes as a fall-out of the Left Front government implementing the Supreme Court’s order allowing women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple. In the end, public resentment against this did not translate into votes or seats, although the BJP marginally increased its vote share to 11.30 percent from 10.53 percent in 2016.

As the Abba song goes, the ‘winner takes it all’ and right now it is Pinarayi Vijayan who is the undisputed winner. To him go all the spoils. However, he will not have time to bask in the glory of leading the LDF to an unprecedented victory, as dealing with a raging pandemic is of paramount importance.

— N Ramakrishnan is a Chennai-based freelance journalist with over three decades of experience. The views expressed are personal

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Click here for our Assembly Elections 2021 coverage

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Where would Congress go from here?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After the latest round of elections to State Assemblies and by-polls across four Parliamentary and dozen assembly seats, the Indian National Congress stares at a huge blank wall.

Undergoing a change for the past few years, the political landscape in the country altered to an extent that the Indian National Congress finds the party at the crossroads.

Since the year 2014, the party is in a stage of perpetual decline in terms of electoral dividends and a shrinking base among the masses. The electoral reverses in the latest round of assembly polls is too pronounced.

While the Indian National Congress failed in Kerala, a state known for its revolving door politics, and wrest power from the Communist Party of India- Marxist –led Left Democratic Front, in West Bengal the verdict was humiliating. The party and its partner the CPI-M- carved Sanjukt Morcha is without a single seat in the new Assembly.

There cannot be a vacuum in politics and the Bharatiya Janata Party occupied the space vacated by the Congress and the Left parties in West Bengal.

Of course, in comparison to the CPI-M and the Congress, the BJP’s institutional presence in the state remained handicapped and could not match the grassroots depth of the Trinamool Congress. The BJP’s high octane campaigning led by heavyweights proved less effective against Ms Banerjee and her street fighter’s survival instincts.

Kerala defeat should shake the Grand Old Party and its political managers. The Congress raised the stakes high in this southern state especially since Rahul Gandhi, who represents the state in the Lok Sabha, marshalled the forces.
While analysis on how the Congress fared in the elections to the five assemblies appeared by the reams, it is interesting to note that in the four Lok Sabha by-polls whose results come out on Sunday.

It retained Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), came second in Belgaum (Karnataka) and lost deposit in Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) while it ally won Malappuram (Kerala). Of the dozen Assembly by-elections, the Congress won four – two in Rajasthan, and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

These results suggest individual strength candidates and with the support of a robust organisation, the party made its presence felt by translating support into representation in the assembly and Parliament.

Now, where does the Congress go from here? The immediate task is to conduct the organisational polls next month. The Congress Working Committee decided the calendar this January but with the pandemic raging, a new schedule should be in order.

The development will also have a bearing on the G-23, the group of leaders who wrote to the party president Sonia Gandhi expressing concern over the poor health of the Congress party and the imperative to inject vigour.

The missive came in the backdrop of an element of opaqueness in the party’s governance. While Sonia Gandhi remains its president, by all accounts Rahul Gandhi continues to be the not-so-visible hand behind decisions – routine or tactical.

After Sunday’s debacle on its part, the G23 leader Ghulam Nabi Azad made conciliatory noises suggesting that it is time for the party to close ranks.

For many years, there is also this talk of holding a brainstorming session. In 1998 autumn, the party conducted its last such exercise, at Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh while several Conclaves of Chief Ministers between 1999 and 2005 brought some ideological clarity and provided political direction to the party.

Since then, Congress suffered a second consecutive defeat in the 2019 general elections and yet there is no serious attempt at introspection. The party and its leadership appear in fire fighting mode, moving from one election to another, or attending one emergency to another.

A cogent and definitive policy and clear political direction is not visible as the party is accused of pursuing a policy of ‘’appeasement’ of minorities to ‘soft Hindutva”. Initial analysis of Kerala assembly polls suggests the Congress ambivalence on issues such as the implementation of the Citizens (Amendment) Act caused damage.

The confusion of taking on the Left-led CPI-M in Kerala and rubbing shoulders in West Bengal is a case of contradictions that found reflection in campaigning too. Rahul Gandhi led the charge in Kerala but shied away from West Bengal citing the spread of the pandemic.

Now, with Mamata Banerjee proving her political mettle in halting the election juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the possibility of her emerging as a leader around whom parties opposed to the BJP could rally is distinct.

What lessons can Congress draw from the assembly polls? Besides lack of political clarity, the party faces multiple challenges. One, its shrinking presence across the country in terms of electoral victories and presence in legislatures; Two, there is an absence of a well-defined leadership; and, Three, its coalition arrangements did not work well, a point proved repeatedly. Its understanding with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh (2017) with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh (2019), the CPI-M in West Bengal (2016, 2019, 2021) illustrate that mathematical calculations do not necessarily add up electorally.

Way back in1996, when the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao was forced to extend support to the United Front arrangement, Congress leader Vithal Gadgil observed in contemporary settings that just as Tony Blair re-invented the Labour party to wrest power from the Tories in the United Kingdom, the GOP should draw appropriate lessons.

After two successive stints in the Opposition at the Centre and ignominy of defeats in the latest assembly elections, it is time for the Congress to re-discover its political raison d’etre.

—KV Prasad is a senior journalist and has earlier worked with The Hindu and The Tribune. The views expressed are personal.

Click to read his other columns

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

BJP no match to one-woman army in Bengal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Contrary to the expectations of a nail-biting finish, Bengal ‘khela’ turned out to be a one-sided affair with Didi walking away with the winner’s crown convincingly. What makes this victory so important is that Mamata Banerjee was up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had put his entire political machinery behind the election. The carpet-bombing of the campaign by Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda besides a host of other cabinet ministers reflected the party’s eagerness to unseat Mamata. But she proved to be a one-woman army for the Trinamool Congress party. The victory is, no doubt, a shot in the arm for Mamata Banerjee, but it will also act as a ‘sanjeevani booti’ for the moribund opposition.

The BJP employed everything in its arsenal to weaken Mamata, but she was not shaken. In fact, the BJP attempted to wear her out by engineering a spate of defections in her party. But she was not deterred. Rather, it steeled her resolve. The BJP’s decision to put up former Trinamool Congress candidates backfired as only a handful of them could secure victory.

What made the three-in-a-row victory possible for Trinamool which was battling anti-incumbency and charges of corruption?

The Trinamool was largely helped by the Congress and the Left Front, which have ruled the state for over 60 years between them and who chose to be fence-sitters this time. Recognising that they will not be able to pose any challenge to the BJP, both the Congress and the Left decided to remain silent warriors as part of a strategy and let the Trinamool slug it out. The grand design was not to allow the Muslim vote to be split. According to the 2011 Census, the Muslim population in West Bengal was 2.47 crore (27.01 percent) of the total 9.13 crore. In 10 years since, one can safely assume that the percentage of the Muslim population would be at least 30 percent, if not more. That they wield influence in close to 100 of the 294 assembly seats makes them a powerful bloc.

The Muslim vote has played an important role in Trinamool’s rise to power. In the past, both the Congress and the Left were also the major beneficiaries of the Muslim vote. However, the Muslim voter has also become smart over the years. Rather than putting all their eggs in one basket, read political party, the Muslims have been voting for the candidates instead which is why there has been a gradual increase in the number of Muslim candidates put up by all the political parties and the BJP is also no exception. The BJP fielded nine Muslim candidates this time as compared to 42 by TMC.

With both the Congress and the Left realising that a dent in the Muslim vote will serve the interests of the BJP only, the two decided to go slow sending out a clear signal to the Muslims who to vote for if the BJP had to be stopped. And as it happened, the Muslims voted en masse for the Trinamool this time ensuring its victory in about 100 seats. So, in effect, the real fight between the Trinamool and the BJP skittled down to close to 200 non-Muslim influential seats. If the BJP were to unseat the Mamata government, it needed to win 147 seats of these 200 or so seats, which was quite a Himalayan task!

Another important factor that contributed to Trinamool’s landslide victory was women who constitute about 49 percent of the electorate and who have been nurtured by the Mamata Banerjee government which runs dozens of women-centric schemes. The women voters have steadfastly been avid supporters of Didi since she breached the citadel of the Communists in the state.

The personal barbs by the BJP leadership against Mamata, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Didi O’ Didi’, did not go down well with the ‘Bhadralok’ of Bengal which they found very insulting for the ‘Daughter of Bengal’. And the result is for everybody to see. While the BJP has made substantial gains by winning 77 seats compared to the last assembly election when it had three seats, the party has, in fact, suffered reverses since it won 18 of the parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Breaking down as assembly constituency-wise, the BJP had won 121 assembly constituencies then which has come down to 77. The Trinamool’s vote share has risen by 6 percent — from 43 percent to 49 percent — while the BJP’s has gone down to 37 percent from 40 percent.

So, where does Mamata go from here? Will she emerge as the Opposition face in 2024? With Congress in the dumps, the 2024 parliamentary elections will be largely fought between the BJP and the regional satraps and there is no doubt that Mamata has emerged as one of the most powerful regional leaders after this election. Can she be a rallying point for all the non-Congress and non-BJP political forces? Only time will tell.

—Vikas Khanna is a journalist and columnist with over three decades of experience. The views expressed are personal

Click here to read his other columns

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

A change of guard in Tamil Nadu

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The results of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections have once again conclusively proved that the fight is between the two Dravidian parties—the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)—and those in alliance with them, while all other parties that claim to be alternatives are at best contenders and nothing more. This has been the case ever since the then Congress lost power in the State to the DMK in the 1967 elections and has since been reduced to a rump.

The DMK under its President M.K. Stalin has regained power in Tamil Nadu after being in the opposition for 10 years. The DMK-led alliance, which includes the Congress and the two Left parties, has 159 seats in the 234-member Assembly, while the AIADMK and its allies, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), will have around 75 seats. The DMK comfortably crossed the halfway mark with 133 seats while the AIADMK had to settle with 66 seats. Opinion surveys and exit polls had predicted a huge win for the DMK-led front. Some even gave it a complete sweep, which did not happen.

It has been a long wait for Stalin, who has been under the shadow of his father, former Chief Minister and former party President M. Karunanidhi, for quite a while. Finally, this election has proved that Stalin is his own man and has taken a giant step out of his father’s shadow. How he runs the government and handles the bureaucracy, balancing various interests and keeping the boisterous elements within his party under control, will test his mettle and administrative and leadership qualities.

The AIADMK, which was led in the elections by outgoing Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, has put up a good fight, proving that it cannot be taken lightly. It has proved its detractors wrong too, as not many gave it a chance of winning the number of seats that it has. The BJP will once again have a presence in the Assembly with four members; it last won in the 2001 Assembly elections when it had four MLAs in the House.

According to initial figures put out by the Election Commission, the DMK has bettered its vote share to 37.67 percent in this election from 31.64 percent in 2016, while the AIADMK has seen its vote share fall to 33.29 percent from 40.77 percent in 2016, a clear indication that Palaniswami’s performance as Chief Minister alone was not enough to make up for the absence of J. Jayalalithaa’s charisma and crowd-pulling capability.

The Congress has improved its tally in the Assembly from eight seats in 2016 to 18 this time, while its vote share has actually dipped from 6.42 percent in 2016 to 4.82 percent now. The BJP’s vote has more or less remained constant, at 2.62 percent now compared with 2.84 percent five years back.

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan and his Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) drew a blank, with Kamal Haasan himself losing to the BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan in Coimbatore South in a see-saw battle where fortunes kept swinging one way or the other with each round of counting. Likewise, the Naam Tamizhar Katchi, a Tamil nationalist party of film-maker-turned-politician Seeman, did not win any seats in the election.

T.T.V. Dinakaran, a nephew of Sasikala, aide and close friend of late chief minister Jayalalithaa, who floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), lost the election; he had won the by-election from Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency in north Chennai after it fell vacant following Jayalalithaa’s death. He had then contested as an independent candidate and defeated the AIADMK’s nominee.

Stalin’s move to rope in poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) to help it in the run-up to the elections has been vindicated. The DMK, with its well-oiled party machinery, began preparing for the elections long before they were due. There were numerous events and programmes that were aimed to refurbishing Stalin’s image. It helped that Stalin himself was prepared to put in the long yards required to take his party to the podium. The DMK overcame initial hiccups in seat sharing, especially with Congress, to put up a united fight. However, the party did not sweep elections as it thought it would. In many constituencies, it has turned out to be a close fight.

With this victory, Stalin has cemented his position in the party—not that it was ever in any doubt. His son Udhayanidhi has won from a constituency in Chennai and will be making his debut in the Assembly; the third generation of Karunanidhi’s family to become a legislator. Stalin’s estranged elder brother was a member of Parliament and a Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh Government, while his half-sister Kanimozhi is a member of the Lok Sabha.

All eyes will now be on Stalin’s choices for the cabinet. Some of the old names such as Durai Murugan, K.N. Nehru and Ponmudi will automatically find a place, while there will be quite a number of new and, hopefully, young faces. The focus will also be on whether Stalin will go in for a mass reshuffle of the bureaucracy, both in the IAS and the IPS, which is what happens in the State whenever there is a change of party in power, or will he retain the key ones for continuity. All said and done, the Edappadi Palaniswami Government did a decent job of handling the first wave of the coronavirus and also in tackling the second wave. Stalin’s first task will be to bring things under control on the Covid situation and start fulfilling the party’s poll promises one by one.

There is likely to be a power struggle within the AIADMK. It is a matter of time before Sasikala makes her move, trying to unite the AIADMK and the AMMK and asserting her position in the merged party, given her once proximity to the late party supremo Jayalalithaa.

According to ground reports, more than the double anti-incumbency that the AIADMK faced, it was the division within its ranks and the reluctance of many candidates to spend the money and time that cost them the election. Also, the MNM and NTK, which were expected to eat into the DMK’s votes more than the AIADMK’s, appear to have harmed the AIADMK. The respective vote share of the MNM and NTK are not yet out, but, according to the Election Commission, “others” accounted for 14.45 percent shares of the votes cast.

The Congress continues to be relegated to the background and is left to play second fiddle to the DMK. Its leaders will have to ponder over the party’s fate. The problem is the party has more leaders than workers and it has to rely on the Dravidian parties to do the leg work.

The BJP left no stone unturned in its attempt to make a mark. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a galaxy of union ministers and even Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigned extensively in the State. Its candidate selection was also much better than last time. The comforting fact is that it has got four members in the House, where since 2006 it has had none.

Unlike Congress, the BJP has shown it is in for the long haul and will do all it takes to capture power. It now has to sustain the momentum in the State. More importantly, it will help the party a lot if it learns a lesson from the immortal lines of a song by the late poet Namakkal Ramalingam Pillai, which begins as: “Tamizhan endru oru inam undu; thaniye avarkku oru gunam undu….” Roughly translated, it means there is a separate Tamizh race that has a distinct identity or characteristic. You cannot view Tamil Nadu with a monochromatic lens.

Tailpiece: With the heat and dust of the elections over, the results of which were anticipated, none will blame the electronic voting machines (EVMs) of malfunctioning or cry that democracy is dead!

— N Ramakrishnan is a Chennai-based freelance journalist with over three decades of experience. The views expressed are personal

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West Bengal Election Results 2021: Here’s full list of winners

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has emerged victorious for the third consecutive time as it retains power in the state with a clear majority. The party performed beyond expectations and predictions with over 200 seats. BJP emerged as the main opposition in the state with over 70 seats while once powerful left parties and congress have been literally decimated.

Here’s the full list of winning/ leading candidates:

(Image & data source: NEWS18)

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Assembly Election Results Highlights: Mamata to take oath as West Bengal CM on May 5

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Assembly Elections 2021 Results Highlights: Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent BJP in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the LDF were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the DMK stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.

The mercurial Banerjee, however, lost the Nandigram seat in a close fight with the BJP candidate and her former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari. According to the Election Commission of India(ECI) website updated at 11.15 pm, Adhikari won by a margin of 1,956 votes to retain the prestigious seat. The TMC has demanded a recount.

While the TMC, the BJP and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) decisively beat anti-incumbency in three of the four states and Puducherry that went to polls, the saffron ally AIADMK ceded space to the opposition DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu which is set to herald a new sunrise and also rise of the son. The DMK is led by M K Stalin, son of late DMK founder M Karunanidhi, while ‘rising Sun’ is the party symbol. The AINRC-led NDA is set to come to power in the union territory of Puducherry.

The TMC’s spectacular win in West Bengal in many ways is seen as a victory of the non-saffron parties who hope to capitalise on the triumph in the eastern state, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to revive attempts to form a Federal front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The victories come barely a month after Banerjee wrote to Opposition leaders urging them to unite against the BJP.

The poll outcome for the BJP comes against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis which has posed a massive challenge to the Centre and also the protests by farmers at Delhi borders to roll back the three contentious farm laws.

For the Congress, the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha, the electoral fortunes took another dip as it failed to make a mark in the current round of assembly polls, the only minor consolation being the victory of its ally DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his congratulations to Banerjee, Stalin and Kerala Chief Minister and CPI-M veteran Pinarayi Vijayan.

The cynosure of the elections, held over March and April as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic picked up pace to finally ravage large parts of the country, was the high-stakes, acrimonious TMC-BJP contest in West Bengal.

Belying all expectations, the TMC scored a spectacular victory overcoming the might of the BJP after a bitter campaign that had turned into a virtual duel between Chief Minister Banerjee and Prime Minister Modi.

“It is the victory of the people of Bengal, the victory of democracy. Bengal has saved India today. This landslide victory came after fighting against several odds — the Centre, its machinery, its agencies.

“This victory has saved humanity,” Banerjee said, addressing the press as she stood on her feet for the first time in nearly two months.

The campaigning was marked by images of Banerjee in a wheelchair with a thick cast on her leg after she was injured during electioneering.

The TMC was poised to get a two-third majority bagging 189 seats and ahead in 25 in the 292-member house while the BJP won 62 seats and was leading in 14. BJP had just three seats in the outgoing house.

I respect the verdict of the people of Nandigram, but have got landslide victory in Bengal, Banerjee said. The TMC supremo added that she would move court against the ‘mischief’ in Nandigram.

The BJP worked hard to build inroads in West Bengal and fielded its top leaders, including Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but power in the state proved to be elusive.

The Left parties, which once called the state their bastion, and the Congress were demolished and not even a factor in the eight-phase election.

In terms of vote share, the TMC had 48.1 percent of the votes against the BJP’s 37.8 percent.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor hailed Banerjee for her “spectacular victory” and said the BJP has met its match in Bengal and lost.

The BJP had reason to smile in Assam where the ruling NDA was ahead of the Congress-led Grand Alliance.

The BJP won or led in a total of 58 seats while its ally AGP won or led in 9 and the UPPL in 6 in the 126-member House.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the people had blessed them.

We can say for sure that the BJP will form government in Assam. We are coming back to power with our partners AGP and UPPL,” Sonowal told reporters.

In Kerala, the LDF readied for another term, the first time in four decades that the same grouping could form the government for the second consecutive time.

The LDF won 70 of the 140 seats and is leading in another 29 segments, according to the Election Commission. The UDF has won 32 seats and is leading in nine, while BJP has failed to win any seat.

Among the prominent losers was ‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan, who had joined the BJP with much fanfare ahead of the elections.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dedicated the historic victory of the LDF to the people and said it proved there was no room for communal politics in the state.

Vijayan’s decades long political acumen came to the fore as a combination of factors contributed to LDF’s historic victory, including delivery of a string of populist measures like distribution of free foodgrains and provision kits to all people, better management of the COVID-19 situation by gearing up the public health care system and enhanced and prompt pay out of social security pensions.

“I thank the people of Kerala for reposing faith in an unprecedented manner in the way that the previous LDF government tackled all the challenges that the people have faced and also the pandemic scourge. The government gave a Kerala model to the world on how to handle the pandemic,” CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK alone had won or was leading in 133 of the 234 seats, a feather in its president Stalin’s cap. Its partner Congress was ahead in 16, while ruling AIADMK was likely to end up with just 69 seats.

Both the Dravidian parties went into the election without their stalwarts, J Jayalalithaa for the AIADMK and M Karunanidhi for the DMK.

Tamil Nadu was also the one bright spot for the Congress where the DMK-led opposition alliance, of which it is a part, trounced the AIADMK-BJP coalition. In the rest of the states, it was a story of more losses underscoring its electoral insignificance.

Though the Election Commission had banned victory roadshows and vehicle rallies, crowds of jubilant supporters of various parties could be seen celebrating in various places in violation of Covid norms.

The drumbeats of victory came in the backdrop of an election which will be remembered for vast, crowded rallies with most people without proper masks —amid the pandemic.

Here are the live updates from the Assembly Elections 2021 Results and government formation in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kerala Election Results 2021: Pinarayi Vijayan submits resignation to Ker Governor Arif Mohammed Khan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who led the ruling CPI(M)-headed LDF in Kerala to a resounding victory in the April 6 Assembly polls, on Monday resigned from the post, ahead of the new ministry formation.

Vijayan drove to the Raj Bhavan around noon and submitted his resignation letter to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, sources said.

Vijayan has been asked to continue as chief minister till the new government is sworn in, Raj Bhavan source said. Scripting history, the LDF retained power in Kerala, bucking the over four-decade-long trend of oscillating between Communist and Congress-led fronts alternately.

LDF won 99 of the total 140 seats, while the opposition UDF had to settle for the remaining 41 and BJP drew a blank.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow