INDIA
Bharat Ratna for LK Advani in poll year adds to BJP’s Ram Temple script
This is probably an acknowledgement by the government of the way the BJP patriarch wrote the script of Indian politics on which PM Modi built the grand edifice of the saffron outfit to command dominance in Parliament and several states.
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Rajasthan: ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ and Hindutva pitch demand a new CM face and governance style
BJP seems to be having a tough time picking its Chief Minister despite winning the election on PM Modi’s appeal and his promises. The Prime Minister is personally invested in ensuring the state’s voters aren’t disappointed. Additionally, the anti-corruption and Hindutva agendas were heavily foregrounded. All this implies Vasundhara Raje is ill-suited to be the CM again
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Mission 325: Three lessons BJP learned from three-state win for 2024
The BJP is a party that clinically assesses what worked for it and didn’t in an election. This election cycle saw some interesting experiments by BJP: PM Modi’s direct attacks on Congress satraps, a bold attempt at collective leadership despite the risks, and neutralising big ticket opposition promises at the grassroots itself
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Assembly Elections 2023: Expect new welfare sops from Centre irrespective of today’s outcome
Competitive welfarism has set in. With Opposition certain to make tall promises to voters for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the central government will attempt to neutralise those with handouts that have an immediate impact and sets the poll narrative in BJP’s favour
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Rajasthan Elections 2023: BJP hopes for dawn of a new leadership, but has Raje got the message?
From fielding three key sitting MPs who are potential chief ministerial candidates to going beyond Vasundhara Raje’s pet Jat votebank to woo other communities strongly, the BJP central leadership has sent not so subtle messages that it is laying the ground for fresh leadership
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Assembly Elections 2023: PM Modi’s visit to Birsa Munda’s village reflects the centrality of the tribal vote
Assembly Elections 2023: BJP is conscious that it has to recover its tribal base to avert a repeat of the 2018 result which favoured Congress. While the 2019 Lok Sabha elections showcased PM Modi’s clout in the tribal community, BJP is leaving nothing to chance, and hence this visit to a village in Jharkhand when the polls are elsewhere
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Assembly Elections 2023: BJP’s three-man army of PM Modi, HM Shah and CM Adityanath is working to a plan
Assembly Elections 2023: The three top leaders are executing specific roles: PM Modi has the responsibility of countering the Congress party’s overtures to voters, home minister Amit Shah is marshalling the frontlines with sharp talking points and the backroom through faction management, while Yogi Adityanath is projecting the hardline Hindutva stance
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Assembly Elections 2023: BJP dares Congress to bat on its Ram Mandir poll pitch
Assembly Elections 2023: Union home minister Amit Shah has sent out a loud declaration of intent by raising the Ram Mandir inauguration at Kamal Nath’s Chhindwara. Apart from political rhetoric from PM Modi and HM Shah, the activity at the grassroots – mobilising people in batches of 25 from each village to visit Ayodhya – is a sure sign of how the discourse around the temple will play out at every tier of society
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Assembly Elections 2023: Behind BJP’s ticket distribution strategy is a growing appetite for risk taking
Assembly elections 2023: : From letting big leaders know that they aren’t bigger than the organisation to fuelling the political ambitions of ordinary workers despite the pitfalls of upsetting the settled order, and downsizing sitting MPs to contest assembly polls, much experimentation is going on in BJP ticket distribution and there is a method to it
BUSINESS
BJP’s Collective Leadership Gambit: Ring out the old, ring in the new
Despite elections turning presidential, BJP has adopted a collegial style of leadership for the coming state elections. The top brass – comprising PM Modi and HM Amit Shah – believe this will throw up leaders capable of helming these states for the next decade and lead to rewards for hard-working party apparatchiks down the ladder
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh Polls: Parties must duck politics of freebies
Freebies may push the state into fiscal troubles. The fiscal deficit for 2023-24 has been pegged at Rs 55,708 crore, which is four percent of GSDP against the 3.5 percent ceiling set by the FRBM Act
