Filed under: Cynthia Chandran | Tags: Chattisgarh, Elections, exit polls, intelligence failures, rising prices, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
While India was reeling under the shock of the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the central Indian state, Madhya Pradesh was going on polls. Usually the Election Commission announces the poll percentage within an hour of the completion of the poll. But that didn’t happen on Thursday evening.
Six states are going to the polls which had started since 14th November, 2008.
Photograph with special permission from Indiavision News Channel.
Elections are due to follow in the coming few days in Delhi, North eastern state of Mizoram and western state of Rajasthan. Chattisgarh polling was marred by Maoist rebels, who are quite active in the state. Due to security reasons, elections in Jammu & Kashmir are taking place over seven phases, running in to several weeks.
Until yesterday, the major hurdle the UPA government faced was the rising prices. Recently there was a spate of bomb attacks by Islamist militants in different parts of the country. Many Indian cities, including the capital, Delhi and other states like Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad have been hit by bomb blasts recently, resulting in huge casualties.
The government was trying to sideline those attacks as the handiwork of militants across the border. But since the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the weakness of the government and its functioning of the intelligence wing have been bared before the public.
The Congress government was hoping to build on the results and hence call for an early general election in February. Now it is expected that the government may want to delay the vote until May, when the five year parliamentary term ends.
No bed of roses
With state assembly elections currently under way, the Indian government is under pressure to explain the intelligence failures.
But things are not that rosy for the main opposition party, Bharathiya Janatha Party as well. The people were shocked to learn that Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was arrested for being a key suspect in the Malegaon bomb blast case, which had killed dozens of people.
What added more fuel to the fire was her close association with L.K.Advani, the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP? However, the BJP has been campaigning for a tougher anti-terror law in response to the terrorist attacks. The outcome of the polling will be known on 8th December, whereas the results will be known in Jammu & Kashmir only on 28th December.
When Mumbai is still groping in the dark to flush out the terrorists from Taj Mahal Hotel, the UPA government’s ineffectiveness to tackle terrorism has been once again bared before the people. I am curious to know which party will get the maximum number of seats in the state elections.
Usually an election brings revenue to the dozens of news channels in India by doing exit polls. But this time the government has approved a proposal to ban exit polls till the first phase of the polling is over, which has been a setback for the growing number of psephologists (the study of elections) in India.
So people all over the country are eager to know about the outcome of the state elections.
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