Assembly Elections are due in five states of India -Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, in a week from now. Elections to Uttar Pradesh Assembly will be held in seven phases beginning Feb 10, while Manipur will see two-phase elections, Feb 27 and March 3. Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa will have single-phase election on Feb 14. The counting of votes will begin March 10.
While the term of the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly is ending in May, those of the other four assemblies are ending on different dates in March. Amidst the COVID-19 surge, the elections are happening in these States. So the Election Commission plans to implement strict protocols and Standard Operating Procedures to ensure COVID appropriate behavior.
Nowhere in the world, one will witness what goes on with Indian democracy. It also offers free movement and switching across different political parties throwing aside ideological beliefs. In a recent run up to the current assembly elections one could see fairly large group of representatives switching parties. All equations in the political landscape have changed ever since BJP and its allies came in power, which is now in majority.
Even though BJP has done amazing progress with regards to development work across the board, it is no guarantee they will win the elections. Caste and religion plays a large role in any elections in India. Also what freebies the parties offer. During this time, people’s representatives look for which side the wind blows and depending on what the parties offer,they start to switch sides.
Ideally the voter should be watching which party offers better job opportunities and overall development for their respective constituencies but in reality it doesn’t happen. To win an election is one thing and to be able to fast-forward the development work is quite another thing altogether. What is going on in the State of Uttar Pradesh is totally different from State of Goa. Punjab will be totally different from other states. Manipur will be dealing with tribal lords and border issues.
In a recent move the congress in Punjab has fielded current Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, a signal that he is the frontrunner for the race but the move has made many uncomfortable.
BJPin UP has released its fourth list of 61 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls, 24 of whom are women nominees, mostly newcomers, with Adityanath to continue as the CM candidate.In Manipur, BJP finally released its list of candidates for the 60-member Legislative Assembly, with Chief Minister N Biren Singh to contest from his home constituency. In Goa, Amit Shah made a comment that voters will have to choose between a “Golden Goa” and a “Gandhi parivar ka Goa”. He also pointed out that parties like the Trinamool Congress (TMC) or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had no concrete plan for Goa’s development.
However, this coming week will see each party play the blame game on the other, with issues from past criminal records and in some cases even personal and family vendetta. Whatever the scenario, ultimately it bounds down to what catches the psyche of the voter before the voting starts. Usually a fairly large number of NRIs fly to India during elections but due to COVID they are missing this time especially in Punjab.
