Solutions to Change

By Anupama Ghosh* Assembly elections in the Northeast of India have never caught the nation’s fancy, but elections in Tripura this time seem to be a different matter altogether. The major reason for the interest in Tripura elections is the long and uninterrupted rule of the Left Front, which has, for the first time, entered into a direct contest against the right-wing parties. Ending a high-pitched election campaign, the BJP claimed that it would successfully end the long rule of the CPM in Tripura. The Left The left parties have been in power in Tripura since 1993, with Manik Sarkar as the Chief Minister from 1998. Data from previous elections show that the Left Front has improved its seats tally and vote share consistently in the 60-seat assembly. Graph 1: Seats Tally and Vote Share of Left Front in Tripura (1998–2013) The Congress The Congress, which has been in power in the state for two terms, had won 10 seats in the 2013 polls, securing 36.53 per cent...

By Sambhavi Ganesh* For a federal unit belonging to a country characterized by a prolonged national movement and the subsequent Congress dominated scenario, Tamil Nadu has surprisingly escaped the national electoral trends by and large. Since 1967, the main political parties operating in Tamil Nadu have been offering an alternative Dravidian ideology in response to the Hindi-Hindu-Hindustani mobilization of much of the rest of India, diversifying the political processes of the country to a significant degree. This article attempts to understand the results of the 2016 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu by exploring reasons for the ADMK’s victory, the DMK’s loss, and some general factors that bring a party to power in the state.  Anti-incumbency rule takes a hit The state has been characterized by a constant swing between All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK/ADMK) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) governments since 1989. Exit polls had largely p...

Dr D Dhanuraj As always, the discussion on the exit poll results has caught the attention of every Malayalee this time also. The majority of the exit polls predict that LDF will form government in Kerala with a notable exception of one NewsNation forecasting a hung assembly. The exit polls have generated unprecedented discussion in Kerala society for a few reasons. This time, the elections in Kerala did not show any trend favouring any front and it was fiercely contested one, even agreed upon by the fronts. The voters in Kerala was enamoured by the presence of a strong BJP – BDJS alliance:- NDA and it is said to boost the election spirits this time around.   Unlike in the earlier polls, this time the campaign was devoid of any governance agenda and rather it thrived more or less on the personality vs corruption charges levelled against them from all the sides. Even though it is the turn of the left parties to form the government as per the usual trend in Kerala...