{"id":5119,"date":"2021-05-05T14:12:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5119"},"modified":"2021-05-05T14:12:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:12:26","slug":"indias-ruling-party-lost-a-key-election-its-worrying-that-it-even-stood-a-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5119","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s ruling party lost a key election. It\u2019s worrying that it even stood a chance."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“For the past few years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a far-right Hindu nationalist faction, have dominated national politics. Since coming into power in 2014, Modi and BJP have attacked the foundations of India\u2019s political system, gradually undermining the guardrails protecting democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this weekend saw a notable setback for Modi: an electoral defeat by a larger-than-expected margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In local elections held in five states, the BJP lost the biggest prize: control of the Legislative Assembly in West Bengal. The defeat came amid gathering signs of trouble for Modi\u2019s quest to dominate India \u2014 the world\u2019s worst Covid-19 outbreak<\/a>, attributable in no small part to government policy, foremost among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large and diverse cultural hub ruled by a communist faction for three decades, West Bengal can roughly be understood as India\u2019s California. The BJP under Modi is a bit like the GOP under Donald Trump, only far more popular and politically effective. This anti-Muslim faction winning control of the local government in a left-wing bastion would have been a sign that its efforts to snuff out the political opposition had been successful, and that Indian democracy was going further down the path<\/a> of its deceased cousins in Turkey, Hungary, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-election reporting<\/a> suggested the BJP had a real shot at defeating incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her left-wing Trinamool Congress party (TMC). The national party poured resources into the fight; Modi held a number of large campaign rallies in the state, while India\u2019s Election Commission<\/a> tilted the rules of the contest in its favor, scheduling the vote in a way that facilitated BJP campaigning and turnout in BJP strongholds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet results released on Sunday showed that Modi\u2018s gambit had fallen short: The current count shows the TMC holding a supermajority in West Bengal\u2019s parliament, around 213 seats out of 294. The BJP, which some exit polls<\/a> suggested would win outright, will hold fewer than 80.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2021\/5\/4\/22412743\/india-west-bengal-results-2021-bjp-modi-tmc-banerjee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For the past few years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a far-right Hindu nationalist faction, have dominated national politics. Since coming into power in 2014, Modi and BJP have attacked the foundations of India\u2019s political system, gradually undermining the guardrails protecting democracy.<\/p>\n

But this weekend saw a notable setback for Modi: an electoral defeat by a larger-than-expected margin.<\/p>\n

In local elections held in five states, the BJP lost the biggest prize: control of the Legislative Assembly in West Bengal. The defeat came amid gathering signs of trouble for Modi\u2019s quest to dominate India \u2014 the world\u2019s worst Covid-19 outbreak, attributable in no small part to government policy, foremost among them.<\/p>\n

A large and diverse cultural hub ruled by a communist faction for three decades, West Bengal can roughly be understood as India\u2019s California. The BJP under Modi is a bit like the GOP under Donald Trump, only far more popular and politically effective. This anti-Muslim faction winning control of the local government in a left-wing bastion would have been a sign that its efforts to snuff out the political opposition had been successful, and that Indian democracy was going further down the path of its deceased cousins in Turkey, Hungary, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Pre-election reporting suggested the BJP had a real shot at defeating incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her left-wing Trinamool Congress party (TMC). The national party poured resources into the fight; Modi held a number of large campaign rallies in the state, while India\u2019s Election Commission tilted the rules of the contest in its favor, scheduling the vote in a way that facilitated BJP campaigning and turnout in BJP strongholds.<\/p>\n

Yet results released on Sunday showed that Modi\u2018s gambit had fallen short: The current count shows the TMC holding a supermajority in West Bengal\u2019s parliament, around 213 seats out of 294. The BJP, which some exit polls suggested would win outright, will hold fewer than 80.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[198,83,494,479],"class_list":["post-5119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-elections","tag-india","tag-modi","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5120,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119\/revisions\/5120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}