Dear Readers,

In the previous issue of Eastern Panorama, I had suggested in my letter to you that Narendra Modi, will prevail in the upcoming elections. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Mr. Narendra Modi owned the election with a historic win with BJP alone securing 303 seats in the Parliament. The Government today is politically more powerful than ever before. On the other hand, the Congress party has failed miserably and there is nothing for them to cheer about. Their organisational set up was too weak compared to the BJP and they have not been able to conduct the election campaign, the way BJP has done. Many had undermined the developmental initiatives of the NDA Government, such as Ujala Scheme, Skill Development, Mudra Loan, Road Constructions, etc. These schemes have generated a lot of employment in the unorganised sector. Had this not been the case, the BJP would not have won so many seats. However, according to data collected by the NSSO, the employment generated in the organised sector during Modi’s Government is the lowest in the last 45 years.

The Lok Sabha election, interestingly, was accompanied with few State Assembly elections. Mr. Pawan Chamling, the former Chief Minister of Sikkim, who ruled the state for 25 years, faced the anti-incumbency and in his place, Mr. P S Golay became the Chief Minister who is young and active. In contrast to this, in Arunachal Pradesh State Assembly, BJP continued to retain power along the expected lines. The BJP won 41 seats in the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly where Chief Minister Pema Khandu won from the Mukto Assembly constituency for the third consecutive time, defeating his lone rival Thupten Kunphen of the Congress.

The moral of this election is very simple; two plus two is not always four. People want development where caste, creed, religion, etc cannot impact as they have impacted in the past. In fact, this election had taken the shape of the Presidential type of election where people started comparing Modi with Rahul. BJP saddled up on Modi’s shoulder and won votes because of their election campaign, ‘Abki bar phir Modi Sarkar’. We have provided an in-depth analysis written by our political correspondent K.V Venugopal, which will offer a good reading.

Finally, we also take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Narendra Modi on his success and hope that India will have a bright future.

Dr. K. K. Jhunjhunwala