The Editorial Analysis- Five State Polls, Their Messages and Implications

Five State Polls, Their Messages and Implications-Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution– Federalism- Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four out of five state assembly elections in recently held state polls. With these wins, the BJP era appears to be in top gear and cruising.

Poor Opposition: Samajwadi party though improved from its 2017 performance but it was no match for the BJP that kept its enormous advantage in the urban and semi-urban seats.
- Even more, the BJP has gained in vote share from 2017.
No Anti-incumbency: Despite, the Centre and State taking together with a nearly eight-year incumbency at the Centre and a full majority in Lucknow, BJP managed to win UP Elections 2022.
No effect of deep economic distress: Despite the poor economic performance of the state, incumbent Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, was returned to power, in a first since 1985.
- Youth unemployment is among the highest in the country and has grown in the past five years, with 16 lakh fewer people employed in the State in 2022 than they were in 2017.
- The much lower growth in the State’s GDP, when compared to the 2012-2017 phase, and the meteoric price rise, impacting the food basket, are all matters of statistical record.
- NITI Aayog ranked U.P. at the bottom of the multi-dimension poverty index.

Reimaging of Opposition: The only Opposition party that has succeeded is the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab.
- The losers would include, other than the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Akali Dal.
Challenging BJP: AAP has as many Chief Ministers as the Grand Old Party, and parties such as the SP and others unable to mount an electoral challenge to the BJP.
- This signals a blow to the whole universe of how politics was done before 2014, at least for the moment.

These elections have proved that to counter the idea of Hindu nationalism or ensure that voters are enthused by harmony, or even a 21st-century version of Indian nationalism, would need much more than smart electioneering or tactical plays.

shivam