Five state elections. Which way the political wind blow ?

After the declaration of the poll dates by the election commission of India with the five states likely to go to polls shortly and their outcome to be announced on 11th December, all the political parties, particularly the ruling BJP , the rival Congress party and BSP have tightened their belts and started whirlwind tours and campaigning.

While prime minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi have enhanced their election tours and public meetings enticing voters through their eloquent speech power highlighting achievements and levelling of corruption charges against each other the voters too have become quite clever and sensitive thinking minutely as to which party they should vote for.

If we go by the present campaigning trends in these five states the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party chief ministers and the prime minister Narendra Modi are asking for votes on their achievements, outstanding performance and exposing the non BJP opposition parties, particularly the Congress as the opportunistic parties forging a grand alliance for seeking power but having no ideological similarities or credible programmes for the country’s bright future.

On the other hand the non BJP opposition led by Rahul Gandhi or BSP are banking on issues such as Rafale deal, banking frauds worth thousands of crores, sky rocketting prices of petroleum products including LPG, demonetisation, GST failures, farmers suicides, inflation, unemployment and prime ministers hollow promises termed as mere JUMLEBAAJI, rhetorics etc.

The most significant aspect of these five state elections is that after just few months, the national elections of 2019 are also to be held. Therefore the results of the polls of these five states viz. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Mizoram and Telengana will have a direct impact on the national elections and as such for the ruling BJP in particular, these elections hold more significance than the Congress party as prime minister Narendra Modi and the BJP supremo Amit Shah have already said number of times that they are winning the 2019 elections with a resounding majority, hands down, with a margin of even more than what they have achieved in 2014.

As far as the non BJP opposition and Congress party is concerned they too are leaving no stone unturned to capitalise the anti incumbency factor likely to go against the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh alongwith the other important issues like Rafale, Banking frauds, unemployment, farmers suicides, agrarian crisis and other local factors etc.

One should not forget that the states having governments of a particular party for more than 10 years in the ruling, usually go for change as the electorates desire to give chance to new political dispensation in the hope for redressal of their long pending demands and aspirations.

The BJP has ruled in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh for 15 long years which have witnessed alleged corruption and unacounted Naxal deaths n deteriorating law and order situation compounded with agrarian crisis and farmers suicides.

This fact can be conveniently substantiated by the change of Congress governments at the Centre as well as in the NCT of Delhi which were governed by Dr. Manmohan Singh and Shiela Dikshit of the Congress Party for 10 and 15 years respectively.

Moreover the defeats of the ruling BJP candidates in the by elections of Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sitapur, Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh and at Alwar and Ajmer in Rajasthan have also made one thing almost clear that all is not well for the BJP at the hustings and if the non saffron opposition parties really unite together avoiding division of votes they can counter the charisma of PM Narendra Modi to a great extent.

But the recent severing of the pre poll pact by Mayawati with Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh does not augur well for the forces of grand alliance in 2019.

The way prime minister Narendra Modi is doing hard work by explaining to the people, the achievements of his government on tips, right from Ayushman Bharat insurance to housing for all to various other developmental projects, foreign investment schemes in the agricultural n infrastrural sector etc and continuing marching ahead with his juggurnaut of popularity by also taking on strongly against the neighbouring Pakistan and its terror attacks lauding the efforts of our Army men it looks as if he is all set to again stage a thumping victory in 2019 say political analysts.

However, one can’t also deny the fact that out of the 5 states going to the polls the results of which would be announced on December 11, the ruling BJP looks on a downslide with the Congress and BSP forming their governments in majority of the states. The increasing agrarian crisis, the disenchantment of the Jats n other forward castes , SC, STs and minorities, increasing farmers suicides, massive unemployment, deteriorating law n order situation and uncontrolled inflation are some of the important reasons/ factors that may cost the ruling party immensly thus compelling them to sit in the opposition in majority of the states going to polls. What’s your take friends?