ELECTIONS TO INDIAN PARLIAMENT 2019 - PART 1

The biggest democratic exercise in the world had been completed successfully, though marred by a few law & order problems, otherwise the conduct of elections had been generally peaceful.  Kudos the Election Commission of India.  There had been attempts to rile the Election Commission and create confusion and suspicion in the minds of the public during and immediately after the last phase of elections was over. First there was doubt raised about the reliability of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and the votes polled in there; later the safety and security of the machines under the care of the different district level electoral officers.  Some allegations were raised about the EVM being transported in private vehicles.  The opposition parties who never questioned the EVM or the ECI while the state elections were conducted and won by them, started casting aspersions on the Commission itself about its neutrality. This was compounded by one of the commissioners openly alleging that his dissent was not noted in any of the orders of the ECI. His grouse was against the clean chit given by the ECI to the prime minister and the national president of the ruling party. Even the Supreme Court of the country had to intervene and command that the paper slips that are printed while voting in the EVM must be verified for machines from five booths for each constituency.  The opposition parties went back to the SC seeking direction to the ECI for 50% verification which was rejected by the SC.  After the last phase of elections were over, a writ was filed seeking 100% verification of the paper trails with the votes polled in the EVM which was outright rejected by the SC. Despite all these hiccups in the conduct of the elections, the verification of the paper slips with the votes polled in the respective EVMs proved to be accurate and put to rest all the allegations.  The standard operating procedure adopted for conduct of elections using the EVM had been followed to the T and the allegations of EVM swapping or the safety and security of the EVMs were all put to rest.  The ruling party secured an absolute majority of 302 seats and in alliance with its partners it scored 351 seats in a house of 542 thereby putting to rest all the allegations. The national president of the main opposition party the Congress who was fighting from two seats from two different states lost the family borough in the state of Uttar Pradesh and won a thumping victory in the far-off constituency in the southern most state of Kerala.  All said and done the conduct of the election in a free and fair manner have proved to the world and the nay-sayers that the use of the EVMs is going to stay and the ECI is a constitutional body which got all the opprobrium for the way in which it conducted itself during the elections, had come out smelling roses. 

The ruling party the Bharathiya Janatha Party had shown remarkable resilience against the onslaught by the opposition party leaders during the long campaign and the personal attacks on the prime minister.  It or its alliance partner won almost all the states except the states of Punjab, Kerala and Tamilnadu.  In the state of Punjab, the stand taken by the Chief Minister who hails from a royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Patiala and a former army captain, was appreciated by the people of Punjab despite their hatred for the leaders of congress.  The Chief Minister shrewdly avoided getting the national president to campaign for the candidates in the state. He also did not question the armed forces for the two surgical strikes carried out in the last three years, the latest being in February this year by the Indian Air Force.  He did not denigrate the office of the prime minister.  These paid the rich dividends in the form of increased number of seats won by congress in the state capturing 8 out of 13 seats with their arch rivals Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP getting only 2 each with a lone seat to the Aam Admi Party.

In Kerala, traditionally the fight is between the Congress lead United Democratic Front and the Communists lead Left Democratic Front (Left and Democracy together is just an oxymoron).  The handling of the Supreme Court order on the entry of women of all ages into the Sabaraimala temple, where traditionally women of menstruating age are not permitted, by the state government of the LDF had gifted the election results to the UDF and congress got 15 out of the total 20 seats in the state.  The hopes of many that BJP will make some inroads into the state politics on the band wagon of Sabarimala issue were dashed and the BJP drew a blank in the state.

Likewise, in Tamilnadu, the electoral fight had all along been between the DMK and the AIADMK.  The two major parties had got into alliances with the national parties and local smaller parties in the state. DMK aligned with the congress and the AIADMK aligned with the BJP.  The DMK lead alliance won 37 of the 38 constituencies which went for polls.  The congress in the back of this performance was able to get 8 seats and the DMK 23.  Other smaller parties in the alliance got 6 seats among themselves.  The AIADMK got a single seat as against 37 seats it got last time in 2014 and the BJP drew a blank and the sitting MP and central minister of BJP government lost in his home constituency.