Lok Sabha 2019 results ~ fir ek baar Modiji Sarkar

BJP’s big victory is the main headline everywhere globally too. BJP made handsome gains in West Bengal and has managed to thwart the threats from BSP-SP Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. The saffron wave not only swept through the Hindi heartland and Gujarat, but also rippled through West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Only Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh appeared untouched. Even in Telangana, the BJP was ahead in four seats, the same as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.  ‘ it is Modiji Sarkar’ again !! 

                                 

Repeating its near improbable feat of landslide victory in North and West India with a vote share of nearly 50 per cent, the NDA has taken a massive lead over the Congress-led UPA. The alliance has crossed the majority mark of 272 and is moving towards 350 seats mark out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats.  Riding on a massive saffron surge sweeping through most parts of India, the BJP-led NDA government looks set to become the only non-Congress government to return to power in the Indian political history. After Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modiji is also the third prime minister of India who has been able to retain power for a second term with full majority in Lok Sabha.

The Indian Lok Sabha, is composed of representatives of the people chosen by direct election on the basis of the adult suffrage. The maximum strength of the House envisaged by the Constitution is 552, which is made up by election of upto 530 members to represent the States, upto 20 members to represent the Union Territories and not more than two members of the Anglo-Indian Community to be nominated by the Hon'ble President, if,  in his/her opinion, that community is not adequately represented in the House. The total elective membership is distributed among the States in such a way that the ratio between the number of seats allotted to each State and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States.

In the first ever General Elections held to Lok Sabha, the composition was – Congress 398; Independents 36;  Communist Party 17; Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party 10; Hindu Mahasabha 4; Tamilnadu Toiler’s party 4 ~ among others …

In Lok Sabha 2019 results announced now, Prime Minister Narendra Modiji  recorded a spectacular victory in Varanasi, clocking a margin of 4,75,754 votes.  Modi polled a total of 6,69,602 votes while his nearest rival, Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP), got 1,93,848. Ajay Rai of the Congress got 1,51,800 votes.  In 2014, Modiji  won from Varanasi by a margin of 3.37 lakh votes.  Varanasi has been celebrating the Prime Minister's victory since the morning with songs, dance and sweets.

Modiji at Mukthinath (Salagrammam divyadesam)

The other camp is glum .. .. Rahul Gandhi, president of the Congress party, congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi this evening for his spectacular re-election and asked him to "take care of the interests of the country"; the 48-year-old also conceded defeat in Amethi to BJP leader Smriti Irani – handing over the constituency that has been with his family for four decades. Mr Gandhi has reportedly offered to resign as President of the Congress, though the party is unlikely to accept.

It would be surprising if the results of India’s national elections, declared today (May 23), surprised Rahul Gandhi.  Gandhi debuted in electoral politics in 2004, contesting the general elections that year from the Gandhi family pocket borough of Amethi in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The seat was earlier held by his father, and though the party has almost vanished from the state, Amethi, along with Rae Bareli, has remained unbreached as his family’s parliamentary bastions. Yet,  this is not the first major defeat that the scion of the Indian National Congress’s first family has suffered since his entry into the Indian political scene. The only difference is that his party had hit the rock bottom in the last parliamentary elections in 2014, from where it could only go in one direction: up.

Rahul however won Wayanad.  In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, M I Shanavas of INC won in this seat by defeating the CPI candidate by a margin of 20,870 votes which was 2.28% of the total votes polled in the constituency. INC had a vote share of 41.21% in 2014 in the seat. In a huge setback to the Congress, veteran party leader Mallikarjun Karge was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes.  Popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat), this was the first electoral loss in Kharge's political life spanning several decades. While Jadhav secured 6,20,192 votes, Kharge got 5,24,740 votes, according to the Election Commission.

Terming the Lok Sabha poll results as unprecedented, BSP president Mayawati again raised doubts over EVMs on May 23 and indicated that her alliance with the SP and the RLD will continue. "We had not contemplated that the alliance will fare so badly. People are not able to digest the poll results. It is against their sentiment and aspirations," she said. Pointing fingers towards electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo said, "Several shortcomings of conducting elections through EVMs have come to our notice and there is opposition to EVMs all over the country." She added that after this results, whatever confidence people had in EVMs will disappear.

To end with some KQ -      Shri G.V. Mavalankar was the first Speaker of Lok Sabha (15 May 1952- 27 February 1956) while the first Deputy Speaker of Loksabha 1952 was  Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar.

So it is Modiji sarkar again !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

23^rd May 2019.