PREFACE
General Elections were held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to handpick all 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 4 June to form the 18th Lok Sabha. On 7 June 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi verified the support of 293 MPs to Droupadi Murmu. This pronounced Modi’s third term as PM and his first time heading a coalition government, with the Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal( United) of Bihar arising as two main coalition supporters . Principally the election was held in 7 following phases across the country-
• The Phase 1 voting was conducted on 19 April 2024. Re-polling in 11 polling stations of Inner Manipur was held on 22 April due to violence. Re-polling was conducted for eight polling stations in Arunachal Pradesh on 24 April due to reports of violence and EVM damage.
• The Phase 2 voting was conducted on 26 April 2024. Re-polling was conducted on 29 April for a polling station in Chamarajanagar due to violence and EVM damage and for six polling stations in external Manipur on 30 April due to violence, EVM damage and forced voting allegedly carried out by unidentified fortified individualities. Re-polling was also conducted for a polling station in Ajmer on 2 May 2024, due to a lost choosers’ register.
• The Phase 3 voting was conducted on 7 May 2024. Voters turnout for the third phase of Lok Sabha choices reached 65.68%. In this phase,17.24 Crore citizens, comprising8.85 crore men and 8.39 crore women, were eligible to cast their votes.
• The Phase 4 voting was conducted on 13 May 2024, consisting 96 constituencies
• The Phase 5 voting was conducted on 20 May 2024,consisting 49 constituencies
• The Phase 6 voting was conducted on 25 May 2024, in which 58 constituencies had voting
• The Phase 7 voting was conducted on 1 June 2024, in which 57 constituencies had voting. Repolling at one cell each in the Barasat and Mathurapur constituencies of West Bengal was held on 3 June, due to violence.
ELECTION RESULTS
Following in first round, the BJP won its first seat after Mukesh Dalal, its seeker for Surat constituency in Gujarat, was tagged unopposed following rejection and pullout of other campaigners. No voting was held in the constituency, as the ECI had certified the results two weeks prior due to the absence of rival campaigners. The overall election result was nearly a shock to Narendra Modi Government with the BJP falling short of its prospects of winning absolute mark of majority. Though pre-poll prognostications were for an inviting majority mark for the BJP, the INDIA bloc performed much better than exit polls had prognosticated it to, with worried palms in major states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and WestBengal. The BJP had to calculate on the 28 accretive seats won by the Andhra Pradesh- grounded Telugu Desam Party led by Chandrababu Naidu and the Bihar- grounded Janata Dal( United) led by Nitish Kumar in order for the NDA to retain the mark of majority in the Lok Sabha.
POLITICAL TRENDS AND ISSUES
PM Narendra Modi has won a third successive term in a important tighter general election than anticipated. Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) looks set to fall suddenly of a majority mark .Still there coalition mates have gained fresh seats. The verdict marks a surprising reanimation for the Congress Party- led INDIA opposition alliance, defying earlier prognostications of its decline, and sprucely diverging from both exit polls and pre-election polls. The significant loss of seats for BJP- further than 50- seats the appeal of a third term, especially given BJP’s crusade targeting 400 coalition seats, making anything lower feel like an under- achievement. The BJP’s significant drop in seats may be linked to unemployment issues, rising prices, growing inequality and a controversial Army reclamation reform( AGNIVEER SCHEME) among other effects and the party harsh and divisive crusade, particularly targeting Muslims, could also have alienated choosers in some regions.
BIGGEST LOSS FOR AYODHYA SEAT
The losses were particularly humbling in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and especially in the holy political seat of Ayodhya. Uttar Pradesh is home to further than 257 million people and has the most administrative seats of any state in the country. In 2014, when Modi first came to power, people in this state formed the core of the BJP’s support. A many months before the election, Modi inaugurated a controversial “RAM MANDIR” in Ayodhya at the point of a MOSQUE demolished more than 3 decades.
Modi turned the sanctification of the Mandir into a massive public event, aiming to galvanize his conservative Hindu support base. Ayodhya indeed passed a US$ 3 billion government- funded metamorphosis to turn it into what some Hindu nationalist leaders have called a “ Hindu Vatican ”. Still, choosers in FAIZABAD constituency, which includes Ayodhya, rejected the BJP – and resoundingly at that. The seeker for the opposition Samajwadi party, Awadhesh Prasad, defeated the BJP’s contestant, Lallu Singh, by a heavy difference of nearly 55,000 votes.
Throughout the elections, Modi spoke at length about the significance of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. He hailed the opening of the Mandir as fulfilment of “the dream that numerous have cherished for times ”. But people wanted further than just words. The BJP’s defeat in Faizabad shows that a casualness for original issues and the use of canny, inclusive political tactics may affect in changes to namer fidelity, indeed in areas of literal significance to India’s maturity Hindu population. Residers of Ayodhya also lost their property as part of the government’s plan to modernise the megacity. Part of the land possessed by the Ayodhya’s university, alongside a set of structures that house staff, was distributed to the construction of a new Airport .
REANIMATION OF OPPOSITION IN RECENT CHOICES
The opposition scored a startling comeback, decelerating the Modi’s process and pushing Bharatiya Janata Party well below the maturity mark. It’s unchartered home for MODI, who needs the help of his abettors to stay in authority. That could significantly revise his governance phraseology after he enjoyed a commanding maturity in Parliament for a decade. The election effects also marked a reanimation for the main opposition Congress party and its partners , who defied prognostications of decline and made deep raids into presiding party fortresses, resetting India’s political geography. The opposition won a aggregate of 232 commands out of 543, redoubling its energy from the last election.
“The opposition has substantiated to be extensively flexible and shown off courage of satisfaction. In numerous ways it has saved India’s republic and shown off Modi that he can be challenged — and indeed lowered by dropping his image of electoral invincibility, ” spoke intelligencer and political critic Rasheed Kidwai.
The cumbrous grouping of further than two dozen opposition parties, called INDIA, was formed last time. Beset with ideological differences and personality fracases , what fused them together was a participated perceived trouble what they call Modi’s tightening grip on India’s popular institutions and Parliament, and his strident Hindu chauvinism that has targeted the country’s nonages, especially Muslims. Under his leadership, the Congress party was downgraded to a paltry 52 commands in 2019 when Modi gamboled to palm in a landslide palm. And last time he was expelled from Parliament due to a vilification case after Modi’s party indicted him of mocking the high minister’s surname.( He was latterly returned to his seat by India’s top court.) But ahead of the 2024 election, Gandhi went along through a metamorphosis — he embarked on two cross-country marches against what he called Modi’s politics of abomination ,re-energizing his party’s ingredients and rehabilitating his image. The election effects showed off his messaging worked out with the choosers, as his party made physical earnings in BJP- governed countries similar as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra by tapping into profitable pressure. It won 99 out of 543 across India. Long considered the biggest treasure in Indian choices, the opposition settled a stunning 44 administrative commands in UP, with the indigenous Samajwadi Party winning a whopping 37, leaving BJP with lower than half of the commands. In the 2019 election, the BJP won 62 commands in the country.
AFTER CHOICES
Narendra Modi called the NDA’s lead” a literal trick in India’s history”, while Congress party chairman Mallikarjun Kharge spoke the election was a” virtuous and political loss” for Modi and a” palm for republic” and the public. In a peroration to his sympathizers on 4 June, Modi spoke that the NDA would form a third successive government Following a gathering with other ingredients of the NDA on 5 June, Modi was formally championed to come high minister again. On 7 June, he was named as line of the NDA and was inaugurated as high minister on 9 June. On 10 June, Modi unveiled his 71- member press, of which the BJP took 61 portfolios, involving foreign affairs, home affairs, finance and defence, while the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal( United) took two machineries each, with the rest going to other ingredients of the NDA. The BJP’s Om Birla was re tagged for a alternate tenure as Speaker of the Lok Sabha on 26 June. Independent MPs from Sangli and Purnia Vishal Patil and Pappu Yadav, both of whom are primary ingredients of the Congress party, extended their brace to it after the election, effectively adding the opposition alliance’s census to 236. On 8 June, the leadership of the Congress Party unanimously nominated Rahul Gandhi to come line of the Opposition, a situation which had been vacant since 2014.
REFERENCES
- https://theconversation.com/india-election-modis-bjp-failure-to-retain-faizabad-reveals-sea-change-in-countrys-politics-232219
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clmmy1pedepo
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Indian_general_election#
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/indias-opposition-parties-largely-written-off-ahead-of-election-make-comeback-to-hobble-modi
AUTHOR:- PRABHSIMAR SINGH, A STUDENT AT UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LAWS,PURC,PANJAB UNIVERSITY