[🇮🇳] Indian General Election 2024

[Saif]

Ridiculed for half a decade, Rahul slows Modi juggernaut

As the Indian parliamentary election results neared completion on Tuesday, supporters at the Congress party’s national headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the heart of Delhi broke into celebrations.

www.thedailystar.net

Ridiculed for half a decade, Rahul slows Modi juggernaut

As the Indian parliamentary election results neared completion on Tuesday, supporters at the Congress party's national headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the heart of Delhi broke into celebrations.

The happiest man was Rahul Gandhi as Congress, powered by his campaign, won 99 seats on its own recording its best performance in national elections since 2004.

Often derided as "pappu" and dismissed as a serial 're-inventor' constantly looking for an identity, Rahul perhaps thought he had had the last laugh in this Lok Sabha election. Congress' tally of seats is not only a quantum jump from the worst show of 52 seats five years ago but more importantly prevented BJP from getting a majority on its own. This is the first time that BJP under Modi failed to get to the magic figure of 272 in the 543-Lok Sabha.

Rahul carried out a 'padyatra' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 2022-23 and a "Nyay Yatra' this year from Manipur to Mumbai in the run up to the parliamentary elections setting the narrative for Congress and staying the course and refusing to be distracted by setbacks.

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[Bilal9]

Great analysis and demystification of Modi propaganda. Although presented in a funny way, John Oliver's points are all factual. Released a few hours ago.

 

[Saif]

Modi takes oath today

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will to take oath today for a third straight term, equaling the feat of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, reports...

www.newagebd.net

Modi takes oath today
New Age Desk 09 June, 2024, 00:54

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will to take oath today for a third straight term, equaling the feat of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, reports NDTV.

Leaders of several neighbouring countries, including those from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Mauritius, will be attending the swearing-in ceremony.

Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina is now in India to participate in the programme.

Chandrababu Naidu's TDP will be getting four portfolios in the new cabinet led by prime minister Narendra Modi, while the JDU will get two berths, sources have said. Three of the four TDP leaders who may find a place in PM Modi's new cabinet are - Ram Mohan Naidu, Harish Balayogi and Daggumalla Prasad.

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) has proposed the name of two senior leaders - Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur. Lalan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bihar's Munger, while Ram Nath Thakur is a Rajya Sabha MP. Thakur is the son of Bharat Ratna receipient Karpoori Thakur.

The decision was taken at a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting to decide on the cabinet berths ahead of the government's swearing-in tomorrow.

According to sources, TDP had sought four portfolios and the post of the parliamentary speaker after winning 16 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh. JD(U) had asked two cabinet berths after winning 12 seats.

Kumar and Naidu emerged as kingmakers after the the BJP secured only 240 seats, falling short of the 272 needed for a majority government. The NDA clinched 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, marking a significant victory.

The coalition negotiations are a throwback to an era before 2014 - when PM Modi swept to power with an outright BJP majority - in which alliance partners haggled for positions and benefits.

AFP adds: Narendra Modi's chief rival Rahul Gandhi was nominated on Saturday to lead India's opposition in parliament after an election result that rescued his party from the political wilderness.

Gandhi defied analysts' expectations and exit polls to help his Congress party nearly double its parliamentary numbers, its best result since Modi was swept to power a decade ago.

A meeting of the Congress leadership on Saturday voted unanimously to recommend Gandhi's election as India's official opposition leader, a post that had been left vacant since 2014.

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[Saif]

Modi sworn in as India PM for 3rd term

Modi, 73, was administered the oath of office by India's President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi

www.thedailystar.net

Modi sworn in as India PM for 3rd term

India's BJP leader, Narendra Modi, seated, signs after taking the oath of office for a third term as the country's Prime Minister during the oath-taking ceremony at presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on June 9, 2024. Photo: AFP/Money Sharma

Narendra Modi was today sworn in as India's prime minister for a third consecutive term at the head of a 71-member NDA coalition government after BJP failed to get a majority.

President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Modi at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where an estimated 8,000 dignitaries attended, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, accompanied by her daughter Saima Wazed, and other top leaders of seven Saarc countries.

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and billionaire industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani were also in audience.

Modi, 73, is only the second person after India's independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to serve a third straight term as prime minister.

Main opposition Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge was present at the ceremony but its key INDIA bloc constituent Trinamool Congress stayed away from the event.

Modi secured his third term in elections that concluded on June 1 with the support of 14 regional parties in his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

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[Saif]

India's election was an eye-opener for struggling democracies

Modi now relies on two more secular regional leaders, political tacticians who could potentially outmanoeuvre the Modi-Shah duo.

www.thedailystar.net

India's election was an eye-opener for struggling democracies

Voters line up outside a polling station in Tamil Nadu, India, on April 19, 2024. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

The late Atal Bihari Bajpai, former Indian prime minister and founder of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has seldom been mentioned in the last 10 years. Lal Krishna Advani, who led the demolition of the 300-year-old disputed Babri Mosque, has remained uninvolved, and even Jagat Prakash Nadda, the current party president, is not given a speck of the spotlight. It's only Prime Minister Narendra Damodar Das Modi who has featured prominently in posters or hoardings. Even the all-powerful Home Minister Amit Shah, regraded as the second man in the BJP hierarchy, was not seen anywhere near the PM in important events like inaugurating the new parliament building, or the spectacular opening of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, where the Babri Mosque once stood.

Over the last 10 years, it has been Modi, Modi and Modi in Indian politics and on the political canvas, even downsizing the images of Gandhi and Nehru.

Narendra Modi ruled India with an iron hand, transforming the nation, perhaps for the first time in its history, into what has been labelled as an "electoral autocracy" and "flawed democracy" by the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute. With no effective opposition in the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha, the BJP government essentially became a one-man show. Consequently, the "largest democracy in the world" slipped further to the 53rd position in the democracy index. Perhaps it was the mistake of the Indian voters who handed a landslide victory to Modi's BJP last time, without any counterforce to act as a check and balance.

However, in the recently concluded 18th Lok Sabha election, Indian voters did not make the same mistake. About 66 crore voted to demote Modi from the status of a self-proclaimed "god-sent avatar" to just a mortal human being. BJP could only secure 240 seats in the 2024 elections, falling short of the 272 seats needed to solely form the government. It had to seek support from its partners in the NDA, particularly from the Janata Dal (United)—headed by veteran politician and nine-time chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar—with 12 seats, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)—led by yet another seasoned politician from Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, with 16 seats.

What it means is that Modi, as the third-time prime minister of India, will not head a BJP government as he did in the last two terms. He has to lead a coalition government with two seasoned politicians by his side. It means that he has been brought down from being the single decision-maker of state affairs to a head of a consultative body, as should have been the case in a democracy.

On the other hand, voters have also provided a formidable opposition in the form of the Indian National Congress (INC) with 100 seats (including a rebel MP who joined) and its allies under the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) with 234 seats. This marks the first time in 10 years that a robust opposition has emerged.

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