By Dr Ashok Kumar Panda
Narendra Modi seems to be all set to take oath as prime minister for the third term most probably on June 8,2024.The magic number is 272 to form the government and BJP has only 240 seats. Discussions are already on with Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Nitish Kumar of JDU for support. The Prime Minister has already submitted his resignation to the President of India Droupadi Murmu.
The General Elections-2024 in India is indeed unique in many ways. India created a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participating in the Lok Sabha elections this year. Other than tall claims by different political parties that they will have a comfortable margin in the hustings, opinion leaders and the intelligentsia are also unable to predict who will form the government on the eve of counting the votes. .Cake walk for any contestant despite the party affiliation seems to be by all means a rarity and this is all the more pronounced where the regional parties are vibrant and strong. Promises of free ration, free electricity, interest free loans and free houses both by the ruling parties and the opposition has become so enticing and alluring to the electorate that they are in a quandary as to whom to vote. This time not only the party matters but also the candidate’s profile was also considered important. One really wonders when India is vying to be in the slot of the third largest economy in the world how free electricity, free interest loans and houses could help the country in moving to the desired position. Are we also not depriving our tax payers and honest entrepreneurs in the interest of vote banks?
Cash, religion, caste and political clash and murders made the political environment somewhat chaotic and tense. . In different parts of the country law and order was far from being congenial. In this election the role of the social media was also significantly high. Misinformation and disinformation was not only rampant , deep fakes were also on a phenomenal rise. Road shows and rallies by Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Union Ministers and contestants no doubt created the desired visibility but the public at large were immensely inconvenienced due to traffic snarls. Added to this the scorching heart indeed exacerbated the situation to a large measure.
Looks like we are oblivious of the old saying” play to win but play a fair game. We understand that all is well in politics provided the candidate wins.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha had an unexpected devastation… they lost all the 21 parliament seats 20 to BJP and 1 to INC. Even in the assembly elections performance was miserable enabling the opposition BJP to form the government after over 24 years of uninterrupted rule. Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik has already submitted his papers to dissolve the assembly to the Governor of Odisha Raghubar Das. Already the process is on as to who will be the next chief minister. Dharmendra Pradhan former union education minister and Girish Murmu, IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre are the most probable names in the race.As declared by the prime minister, Narendra Modi during his election campaign in Odisha the swearing in ceremony of the chief minister is expected to be on June 10,2024.