New Delhi: In DNA on Friday, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analyses India's domestic politics and elections. The Election Commission today announced the dates for the assembly elections to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Union Territory of Puducherry. The results will be announced on May 2 and our country is fully prepared for the outcome.
India is often called a nation of festivals because nearly a thousand festivals are celebrated every year. That is, every day people celebrate around three festivals and an election is one of these three festivals. India, on an average holds five to seven assembly elections every year. That is, in every four month people vote to form a government in their state.
As the EC announced the polling dates today for four states, West Bengal is the most important because at present the incumbent Mamata Banerjee-led government and BJP are locked in a direct fight. We try will try to understand the new twist in the country's politics with this competition and hopefully answer the question of who will win in these states.
If we add the total population of the four states and the union territory of Puducherry, then about 25 crore people will cast their votes in the elections. Which is about 19 per cent of the total population of India and the total number of voters is more than 18 crores.
Currently, there is TMC government in West Bengal led by Mamata Banerjee, BJP government in Assam led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Front in Kerala.
In Puducherry there was a Congress government but after it was reduced to a minority President's rule has been imposed.
If BJP wins in these states, it will expand the party in eastern and southern India and these states will become game changers for it in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Because these states have a total of 116 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Notably, all these states are non-Hindi speaking and BJP is often called the party of Hindi belt. Now if BJP establishes its dominance in these states then it will bring two major changes.
First, BJP will see an expansion in India in four directions - north, south, east, west. And secondly, it means BJP's roots will become stronger in national politics as well as in regional politics.
Also, if the results in these elections are in favor of BJP, then the role of these states will become important in the general elections of 2024.
Today many people will also have the question that who is winning in these elections? So we have prepared the answer for you.
