The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP — a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi By PREM PANICKER So true. If, back in January when the country was collectively marinating in the imminence of Ram Rajya, someone had told me that the Constitution would become an issue in the 2024 elections, I'd have taken good care to put distance between me and him.
Or her. And yet here we are — in a where ‘Samvidhaan ko bachana hai' has moved from the “wooly-headed Khan Market Le-Li” circles into the political mainstream, and is applause-bait when an Opposition leader invokes it from the stump. I'm not complaining — I'm cheering.
For now, focus is on the seventh and finally final phase of these elections, the campaigning for which ended on Thursday evening. In Uttar Pradesh, where Narendra Modi as the mukya yajaman led the pran prathishta of the under-construction Ram temple on January 22 and ushered in Ram Rajya, who would have thought rampant unemployment would be the hidden tripwire lying in wait for the BJP? Ground reports, local journalists and vox populi gathered by journalists of all stripes dovetail into one conclusion: There is a perfect storm hitting the ruling party where it hurts the most — in the state where they expected to make the most gains by riding the Hindutva wave in the wake of the Ayod.
