Indian elections: Second leg of polls kicks off today

As phase two begins, all eyes are on the April 10 polls.

DELHI:

As the election juggernaut rolled on in India, six constituencies in north east India, a region that is known for multiple insurgencies, will go to the polls today (Wednesday) but it is the 91 others spread over the crucial states of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Odisha that people are watching. Campaigning in these came to a halt at 5 PM on Tuesday with the election due on Thursday.

The north-eastern states are sensitive border states – Arunachal Pradesh, for instance, is on the Sino-Indian border – and suffer either from tribal insurgencies or the growth of secessionist movement. In Manipur, an insurgency that calls for redrawing the boundaries of the state along tribal lines has made it one of the two states in India where the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is still in operation. The state sends just two representatives to the lower house but because insurgents might influence voters through violence, special arrangements have been made to stagger the election.

Similarly, the election in Mizoram, scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed at the last minute to April 11 because non-government organisations (NGOs) in the state have called for a strike.

While today’s election phase represents just a small fraction of the 545 seats that are going to the polls, it is the election on April 10 that is being closely watched.

For the next 48 hours, candidates can only canvass door to door and cannot hold public meetings or rallies 48 hours before voting.



From ex-Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh – the last COAS, contesting from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh – to a young man, Dushyant Singh – the scion of a family-run political party founded by his great grandfather contesting from Hisar, Haryana – whose father as well as grandfather are in jail in connection with a bribery scam from the days when they were in power in Haryana, the 91 seats that go to polls on Thursday effectively mark the real beginning of a halcyon season.

Elections to two states – Haryana and Odisha – due on April 10 are also being held for the assembly (for provincial government). Voters in these two states will cast one vote for the assembly candidate and one for the candidate they want to send to the lower house.

Currently the Haryana government, which due to its proximity to Delhi is a small but influential state, is run by the Congress party, but that could change.

Odisha is ruled by an opposition party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and in the unlikely event of Narendra Modi being unable to cobble together a majority, the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is fancied as a possible prime ministerial candidate.

After the stunning victory they pulled off in the provincial elections to Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be testing the waters in the election to the Lok Sabha. Delhi sends seven seats to the lower house and how many of these AAP will be able to get is the crucial question.

Also at stake are 10 seats in Maharashtra’s arid Vidarbha region which suffers from an endemic lack of water and has seen farmers committing suicide on account of the drought and their inability to pay back debts.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2014.