NEW DELHI: The 75-day campaign for India’s seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, the longest in Indian electoral history since the 1951-52 polls, ended amid fierce fighting on Thursday as the ruling BJP-led NDA seeks a record third term and the opposition India Party seeks to reverse its electoral misfortunes of the past decade.
The seventh and final round of voting will be held on Saturday for 57 seats in eight states and union territories, including Varanasi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking re-election. In these seats, the BJP won 25 in 2019, while the Indian National Congress won eight and the Trinamool Congress nine.
On the final day of the election campaign, Prime Minister Modi will hold rallies in Punjab before flying to Kanyakumari for a 48-hour meditation. Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi will hold rallies in Punjab and Indian National Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will hold a press conference, asserting that India will win a majority on its own and ensure the ouster of the Modi government.
All eyes will be on June 4 when the votes for all 543 seats are counted, particularly on how the Indian National Congress performs in North India, and also how the Bharatiya Janata Party performs in West Bengal and Odisha, as the party has a strong hold in some of the northern states.
While the BJP based its election campaign on “PM Modi’s guarantees” and the prime minister’s personality, the Congress Party bet on the “Nyai Patra,” which outlined five “Nyais” and 25 guarantees targeted at young people, farmers, workers and women.
The Indian National Congress and Indian government’s campaign focused on “saving” the Constitution and the country’s democracy, while the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “400” target was aimed at gaining the mandate to rewrite the Constitution and end quotas. Opposition leaders argued that their campaign resonated particularly with Dalits, tribal people and OBCs.
Rahul is always no stranger to copies of the Constitution which he holds up at rallies, while Kharge has warned people that if Modi is re-elected, there will be no more elections. The opposition has also accused Modi and the BJP of being silent on rising prices and unemployment while promising to fill vacant government seats, create new jobs and scrap schemes like ‘Agnipat’.
Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party responded to the opposition’s onslaught by first trying to link the BJP’s manifesto with the pre-Partition Muslim League. In the second phase of the election, Modi accused the BJP of trying to take away women’s mangalsutras and tried to claim that the BJP was trying to redistribute wealth to Muslims.
Political observers say there has been a change in the tone of the BJP’s election campaign after the first phase of elections, with PM Modi saying at a rally that there will be no constitutional amendments. The BJP also tried to corner the Congress by alleging that it would give reservation rights to Muslims by stripping them from SC, ST and OBCs, a charge denied by the Opposition.
The election campaign also saw the electoral commission come under fire from opposition parties and activists for delays in releasing voter turnout data and failing to address complaints.
Responding to complaints of “hate speech” by PM Modi, the Election Commission had asked BJP leader JP Nadda to ensure that party leaders do not indulge in “sectarian” campaigns while refusing to accept his allegations, but did not take any action against the PM.
The committee also asked Indian National Congress Party leader Mallikarjun Kharge to ensure that his party’s star campaigners do not give the “wrong impression” of abolishing or selling the Constitution, make speeches that “create mutual hatred and provoke tension” between religious and linguistic communities, or make “potentially divisive statements” about the socio-economic composition of the armed forces.
Published May 30, 2024 13:38 IST
