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Urjit Patel’s resignation – A loss to Indian Economy

December 13, 2018

I express my disappointment over the events that led to the resignation of Dr. Urjit Patel. The sudden resignation of 24th Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr. Urjit Patel is a major embarrassment for the government. Dr. Patel’s resignation is bound to raise questions about the Centre’s ability to work with independent-minded economists.

The post of the RBI Governor is very important and it’s really unfortunate that he resigns stating personal reasons. Dr. Patel is the first RBI Governor since 1990 to step down from the post prematurely.

The choice of Dr. Urjit Patel an eminent economist, consultant and banker by PM Modi as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India had reflected the government’s preference for continuity to the Rajan tradition and the step was in the right direction. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had termed RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s resignation as “very unfortunate” and said that it was a “severe blow” to the country’s economy. This is for the first time in the history of RBI that the Governor has resigned from the post due to disagreement with the government policies. An honest person has no place. RBI Governor has expressed through the resignation his strong conviction on RBI’s Independence.

Dr. Patel, working closely with Dr. Rajan, was piloting India’s transition to a new monetary policy regime. Dr. Patel, the senior-most Deputy Governor at the RBI, was the architect of the new monetary policy framework and is working closely with the Cabinet Secretariat and the Finance Ministry to ensure a smooth transition.

No doubt, Dr. Patel had to face a number of challenges ranging from reining in inflation to managing currency volatility but looking to his profound vision about global economy, and extraordinary intellectual power about understanding the financial problems in India, and he had continued a good job by his predecessor Raghuram Rajan in containing inflation and reducing the interest rates. His appointment as the Governor had also come as a relief to International investors. It is nice that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has focused Patel’s contribution and said that “the Government acknowledges with a deep sense of appreciation the services rendered by Dr. Urjit Patel to this country both in his capacity as the Governor and the Deputy Governor of the RBI.” He was in service so long in many capacities and it would have done the country well if he had continued for a few months more.
Being the man who has seen RBI’s policies and framework, it was expected that his decisions regarding interest rates, monetary policy, cleaning the NPAs of banks, etc., will be balanced keeping in mind the circumstances prevailing from time to time but somehow with pressure from everywhere he could not deliver.

Even as the Deputy Governor of RBI, Patel an abrasive personality, had played a vital role in developing the new monetary policy framework that has focused on reigning in inflation and has imparted stability to the currency.

The changes he helped impel are considered to be among the most momentous monetary policy reforms.

He understands the circumstance very well as he is a fantastic professional, competent and would have been able to deliver but he navigated India’s tricky political scene. What people expect is that besides controlling inflation, Dr. Patel would have followed through on the efforts to clean up banks’ bad loans to support the investments needed and to keep our country as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Dissolution of Parliament by President ‘unconstitutional’, rules Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court

Web Team

December 13, 2018

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the dissolution of Parliament by Maithripala Sirisena was “unconstitutional”, in a major setback to the President whose controversial decisions have plunged the island nation into a constitutional crisis.

A seven-member apex court bench said that the President cannot dissolve Parliament till Parliament completes a 4 1/2 year term, the Colombo Gazette reported.

Sri Lanka is going through a major political crisis since October 26 when President Sirisena, in a controversial move, sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and installed former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place.

He also dissolved Parliament and called for a snap election on January 5.

Sirisena sacked the 225-member Parliament when it appeared that Rajapaksa would not be able to muster the support of 113 MPs. Wickremesinghe, on the other hand, commands a majority.

As many as 13 petitions were filed against Sirisena’s November 9 order sacking the Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end.

The Supreme Court on November 13 had issued an interim order ruling Sirisena’s gazette notification as temporarily illegal and halted the preparations for snap polls.

When NOTA rules EVM…

Moumita Mukherjee

December 12, 2018

With the recently revealed election results, Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh and took back the helm from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. While the significant comeback of India’s main Opposition party Congress is a talk of the town, how NOTA or the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option clearly established itself to be a plot twister in elections, too grabbed the spotlight. How this fair performance will help Congress enthrone electoral victory in 2019 Lok Sabha polls is a time-sensitive subject; in the meantime, why the ruling party BJP or the Opposition parties including Congress must focus on impressing the NOTA voters to secure upcoming polls is quite evident.

NCP leader Majid Memon stated, “Not only Congress, but it’s the duty of every consensus political party to see to it that the NOTA option should get a very negligible share of votes. If people abstain from casting their vote or expressing their displeasure on all the candidates, it’s not a good sign for a healthy democracy.”

The election outcome in Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) was a neck-to-neck fight between both the leading political parties; Congress stalled two seats behind the majority mark of 116 and managed to emerge as the single largest party with only five seats more than what BJP secured. The party will now push itself to the government forming power with the support of all four independent winners. On the other hand, Rajasthan gave a clear mandate to Congress with 99 seats and Rashtriya Lok Dal with one while the alliance was one mark away from claiming majority — the state has given only 73 seats to BJP, 6 seats to BSP, 2 seats for CPI(M), 13 seats for the independents, and other parties secured 5. Chhattisgarh, where the majority mark was 46, was a good lesson for the ruling party as in the 90-member assembly, BJP only managed to keep 15 seats safe while Congress has won 68 seats.

While the slimming vote share as compared to the 2013 Assembly polls of these states and 2014 Lok Sabha polls looks worrying for BJP, the increased NOTA votes played a key role in making the election tough to crack for the saffron party. BJP washed its hands off from 56 seats in MP and Congress increased its count by 56. BJP has lost 89 seats in Rajasthan and 34 seats in Chhattisgarh as compared to 2013 assembly polls. Even in Telangana, the saffron party’s vote share in the 2018 assembly elections is 1.5 per cent less than what it got during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

BJP Spokesperson Avadhut Wagh asserted, “NOTA is an additional choice given to the voters and this is as per the Election Commission norms. If more than 50 per cent people vote for NOTA, there will be a re-poll in that particular constituency. We are not only going to convince the NOTA voters but all of the voters.”

Meanwhile, the winning margins this year too saw a dip. As per the Election Commission reports, in Rajasthan, at least 15 constituencies polled more NOTA votes than the victory margin of the winning candidates and this indicates that the total votes that NOTA drew in itself could have given 7 to 8 more seats to either the Congress or the BJP. For example, Rajasthan BJP’s Kalicharan Saraf won by 1,704 votes from Malviya Nagar constituency and NOTA was exercised by 2,371 voters in the same seat. Similarly, independent candidate Khushveer Singh defeated BJP’s Kesaram Choudhary on Marwar Junction seat by 251 votes against 2,719 NOTA and the Kushalgarh constituency of Banswara district recorded highest 11,002 NOTA votes.

Spokesperson of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) Atul Londhe expressed, “It’s really a very serious matter to be taken into consideration and we are definitely thinking on that. High NOTA vote share is a negative thing for a democratic setup. Election tickets should be given to a candidate who will really work hard amongst the people and this is what Rahul Gandhi thinks while giving the responsibilities; although, sometimes the candidate fails to be accepted by some section of the voters.”

“One person cannot expect to get a 100 per cent vote share. We definitely oppose the concept of NOTA because there should be a clear rejection or acceptance for the candidate and this should be the principle of a democracy,” Londhe added.

The results have given Congress a clear jump over BJP. Given that, it’s the time that the country’s oldest party starts working on the issues highlighted by them in its election manifesto i.e. agrarian distress, lack of jobs, post demonetisation and GST disappointment. More than that, for repeating the winning spree in Lok Sabha Polls and become the choice of the majority with a massive margin, Rahul Gandhi needs to be more focussed on gathering the NOTA voters in Congress’ favour.

AAP leader Ravi Srivastava said, “A large number of population is totally disappointed and frustrated. The NOTA means there is no alternative and the voters cannot decide whether these contesting candidates deserve their votes or not. The political parties should stop fielding the candidates who have got serious criminal cases against them and instead, look for clean candidates who are potentially sharp people. Once a criminal goes to the Parliament and the Assembly, he becomes a liability for the nation.”

Srivastava added, “People should be made aware that instead of NOTA, they can always go for candidates who have a clean image or whom they feel can be good and will serve people and vote accordingly because NOTA is only a waste of votes and in a democratic process, this shouldn’t happen.”

Political parties must not disregard the power of NOTA

Vaidehi Taman

December 12, 2018

From Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh, despite popular vote, the NOTA option made the contest difficult for the BJP. This is something all the political parties must take a note of. The outcome of the recently held Assembly election has for the first time clearly established the power of the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option and provided evidence that it can play a significant role in a major election in the country. NOTA is a voting option one can choose when one does not want to cast vote for any of the contesting candidates. It is believed that this feature would be helpful in the long run. Most of the people think that casting a NOTA vote is as same as not casting any vote in the election. Well, NOTA mean that you have the power to reject the contesting candidates and specify your revolt. India entered into the ‘NOTA age’ in 2013, after the Supreme Court’s judgement in People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) & Anr vs Union of India & Anr, in which it directed the Election Commission of India to add the NOTA button to the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). The court held that giving the voters the right not to vote for any candidate was extremely important in a democracy. The Law Commission of India and the Election Commission were also in favour of giving the voters the right to reject all the candidates.

The NOTA or None of the Above option appeared to have outperformed several political parties, including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Samajwadi Party, which contested the assembly polls in the five states. NOTA votes ranged as high as 2.1 per cent in Chhattisgarh to 0.5 per cent in Mizoram. The AAP, which fielded its candidates on 85 seats out of 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, got 0.9 per cent of votes while NOTA votes were 2.1 per cent of the counted votes in the state. Similarly, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got 0.2 per cent votes respectively in Chhattisgarh. The Communist Party of India (CPI) got 0.4 per cent votes in the state. In Madhya Pradesh, NOTA votes were 1.5 per cent of the total counted votes. Samajwadi Party got 1 per cent while AAP got 0.7 per cent votes. The NOTA votes in Rajasthan elections were 1.3 per cent. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and SP got 1.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent votes respectively. The AAP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) received 0.4 per cent votes each in the state. In Telangana assembly polls, NOTA got 1.1 per cent of votes while NCP got 0.2 per cent of votes. The CPI(M) polled 0.4 per cent votes while CPI received 0.4 per cent votes. In Mizoram, NOTA got 0.5 per cent of votes while People’s Represent for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) got 0.2 per cent of votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was behind its main rival Congress in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It was locked in a close contest with the opposition party in Madhya Pradesh.

When political parties will realise that a large number of people are expressing their disapproval with the candidates being put up by them, gradually there will be a systemic change and the political parties will be forced to accept the mandate of the people and field candidates who are known for their integrity. Since then, NOTA option has come into vogue in elections in the country.

When BJP came to power, we had hoped for a creative amendment to solve the disparity of the delivery of quota. Rich people who have a minority status have all benefits of quota and representation. But poor in general category is deprived, marginalised, dispossessed as new cases of minority status is being delivered to the dominant communities with an aim towards the vote bank. If Congress started quota and representation of minorities, should it be continued in a Congress-Mukt Bharat? General category is frustrated and most of them voted for NOTA.

If the status quo is maintained, the corrupt will come to power and all investigations regarding their scams will go to cold storage. Introspection is highly appreciated.

For a party that had appeared to be lost in the political wilderness over the past few years, Congress has plenty to cheer about recent results in the Assembly elections. In the three Hindi-speaking States, where it was locked in a direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress has performed more than creditably, raising hopes of a revival of fortunes as the country gears up for the general election in 2019. In Chhattisgarh, the party probably well exceeded even its own expectations by building a massive 10 percentage point lead over the BJP, setting itself up to win more than a two-thirds majority.

However, a strategy that wins elections may not necessarily suit governance, and that will be the immediate challenge before Rahul Gandhi. Picking a Chief Minister in Chhattisgarh will be relatively easy, but in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it is going to be a tough call. Balancing the need for a generational shift with respecting the wishes of the veterans will test Gandhi. Balancing his social justice politics with the upper caste claims within the party is also tricky terrain, which will now get trickier. The Congress has placed itself firmly as the nucleus of any anti-BJP formation, at the national level, in 2019. This will trigger fresh dynamics between the Congress and other non-BJP regional parties. Despite their claims of anti-BJP credentials, entrenched regional parties will not accommodate the Congress easily. A resurgent Congress alarms them even more.

If anything, after the massive victory of regional parties in Telangana and Mizoram, regional parties will bargain hard with the Congress. Therefore, the challenge before Rahul Gandhi is to raise his own bargaining power vis-à-vis potential partners to buttress the position of the Congress as an alternative to the BJP — in vision and in governance. An alliance is not something that happens because one searches for it; it is something that happens when parties find it essential for self-preservation and advancement. The cause of final win for the Congress in three States namely MP, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh has to be directly attributed to the BJP’s toxic egotism and overt creation of divisive mindsets on religious lines. It is the time for the Congress, now, to wake up and take corrective steps to honour and mend their ways to deliver to the public expectations, well realising that they are the elected representatives of the country’s masses and not their bosses. Rahul Gandhi stayed focussed on the issues of the day, such as agrarian distress, lack of jobs, and problems caused due to demonetisation and GST. He further needs more focus and steady run behind the NOTA brigade.

With these big northern states in its bag in a single day, the outcome effectively put paid to the low-quality propaganda about “Pappu” versus “Chanakya”.

The BJP President used the innocuous sounding monikers bitingly while alluding to the Congress President in his speeches to underline Rahul’s supposed artlessness, inexperience, and importantly, makes the point that he was in politics as an inheritor and not as a self-made leader rising from the ranks like Narendra Modi. Let’s see how Congress deals with success and BJP handles the defeat.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

Letters to the Editor: December 12, 2018

Afternoon Voice

December 12, 2018

Kudos to Mary Kom

This is a very proud moment for all Indians as Mary Kom created history and shook the record books with an unprecedented sixth title. She became the most successful boxer in the history of Women’s World Championship. It is like miracle that despite suffering from diarrhoea, Mary outclassed Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota by a unanimous 5-0 decision in the women’s 48 kg light flyweight final of the Women’s World Championships, at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, to clinch the historic gold. My heartiest felicitations for Mary Kom on creating history for the nation and being an inspiration for all youngsters; boys and girls, who are indulged in sports. She deserved it. Kudos to her exceptional talent and performance. Bravo.

– QB Malik

We must respect the Supreme Court

Once again stirring the Ram Mandir pot, Rajya Sabha member of Maharashtra and spokesperson of Shiv Sena, Sanjay Raut, exhorted the Hindu community to violate the law and order and take it in their hand. He said, “We demolished Babri Masjid in 17 minutes, how much time it does take to enact the law for the Ram Temple?” This unnecessary statement came just two days before the grand gathering at Ayodhya and it looks like an irresponsible statement from a leader which might spread violence all over the country. Why he is violating law and order by these types of controversial statements? Why are the BJP, VHP, SHS’s leaders and many other Hindu organisations in such a hurry to construct the Ram Temple? Why they can’t wait for the verdict of SC? Why do they want the ordinances for Temple to come out, while the case is still under process? Why do they always remember Ram just before the election? Why has Ram become the Toll of winning elections? It is crystal clear that they are playing their political game using religious sentiments and emotions of common Indians. Therefore, SC should take severer steps against these sorts of controversial leaders and the parties must accept it, if they have faith in the Indian Constitution and its judiciary.

– Salman Shakeel

Lessons from election-results

The winning of many party-rebels in recently held elections to the five state-assemblies, the ever-increasing vote-share of NOTA, the strong factionalism in winning party in Hindi-heartland and the necessity of costly by-elections because of the candidates winning from dual constituencies call for urgent poll-reforms to be implemented before 2019-elections to Lok Sabha.

A candidate must not be allowed to contest for more than one seat. Rather a sitting MP or MLA must first resign from earlier seat before filing nomination for the other. NOTA should be converted into Right-To-Reject where all candidates getting votes less than NOTA may be barred for life-time from contesting any election. In case of NOTA winning elections, re-election may be held but with a rider to disable the NOTA button to avoid chains of by-elections caused due to NOTA winning every time.

To tackle factionalism in winning parties, Chief Ministers should be elected by secret and compulsory votes of all MLAs through EVMs on nominations filed by at least 34-percent MLAs. Any such elected Chief Minister may only be removed by same process but with compulsion of naming alternate leader in the same motion. Such an elected Chief Minister will be able to have cordial relations with opposition in running the House-proceedings.

– Subhash Chandra Agrawal

Ambanis deserve full compliments

At a time when rich, elite celebrities and personalities in India are exhibiting their richness by going for marriage-celebrations outside in India like Virat Kohli with Anushka Sharma and Priyanka Chopra with Nick Jonas — both couples performing marriage in Italy, wealthiest Indian Mukesh Ambani chose to celebrate the marriage of his daughter in India. Earlier, several other rich Indian industrialists also celebrated marriages of their children in foreign countries, even by taking along a full fleet of cooks there to prepare Indian food.

Being rich is not bad, but the exhibition of richness by draining out Indian money for celebrations outside the country is not good. Time has come to impose a marriage-tax for mega-budgeted marriages with an additional surcharge if such marriages are performed outside the country.

Extra-rich persons can also be encouraged to commemorate family functions by setting up public-utility institutions like schools, colleges or hospitals rather than racing for mega-expenses in private functions. Such commemorative-institutions can be blessed and graced with being presence of VVIPs and celebrities. Amitabh Bachchan made a smart beginning by laying foundation-stone in name of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for a women’s college in the backward Daultapur (Barabanki) of UP on January 27, 2008, to commemorate such an occasion.

– Madhu Agrawal

(The views expressed by the authors in the article are his/her own.)

Are bank employees stressed out?

C S Krishnamurthy

December 12, 2018

Bank employees, bank work, job stress, workload, banking job, sbi bank, jobs in bank india, mumbai banking jobs, hdfc bank, axis bank, andhra bank, bank of india, boi, pnb, icici bank, bank loans — Image Courtesy: PTI

Twenty-two-year-old Gupta, an analyst at the Goldman Sachs office in San Francisco, calls his father in Delhi. “It’s too much. I have not slept for two days, having a client meeting tomorrow, have to complete a presentation, my V.P. is annoyed, and I am working alone in my office”. The next morning at 0640 hrs, Gupta was found in the parking lot next to his apartment building and was declared dead.

Back home in India, not long ago, the pressure of handling a continuous stream of customers claimed the life of an SBI officer from Andhra Pradesh. The demonetisation drive took a severe toll on bank employees’ health, about 10 bankers reportedly succumbing to exhaustion and stress.

In one case, in an internal meeting, the victim was publicly humiliated by his superiors and was termed as an “underperformer”. The man got depressed to such an extent that in his suicide note, he mentioned that his body must be “fed to the dogs”, depicting the dog-like existence he suffered due to job stress. In another note, a 53-year-old bank employee said that banks are “reeling with severe staff shortage”. The tragic list is long.

Challenge of change

The Banking industry has traditionally operated in a moderate domain for decades. For about 20-25 years now, banks have been going through enormous changes in style and structure. The banking sector presents several symptoms of this evolution, such as mergers, digitalisation, outsourcing, job insecurity, increasing competition from private sector banks, and multifunctional tasks, leaving a mark on the working conditions and daily lives of bank employees.

The best time to work in a bank has clearly passed, as the outlook is stressfully daring. Job stress, in the new banking format, is now at critical levels, showing injurious physical and psychological signs on employees, hurting the organisational performance too. At least, three out of five bank executives describe their job as “extremely stressful”.

Work overload

Why do problems and conflicts which earlier had the backing of organisational protests and demonstrations, now lead to the medical practitioners and counsellors? Is work more demanding and traumatic than any time before?

Employees cite unrealistic demands and deadlines, technology overload, under-recruitment, unfair geographical transfers, imbalance of deploying the staff to various departments/branches as the main causes. The Bankers whisper that it is damaging their business, as they lose ‘cream’ staff and are faced with an increase in absenteeism, and also ‘presenteeism’ where workers stay for long hours without being productive.

Role of management

There is no such thing as a stress-free job. Though this can be related to individual’s personality, perceptions, and mindset, it is not uncommon that it raises its head as a result of insults, jealousy due to the attention is given to one peer by the boss and neglecting the other.

Though some employees bring work-related issues home and take family problems to work, most employees suffer from mild to acute stress. Workplace stress is found to be “leading cause of depression” in the developing countries, especially in India.

Remember, a healthy employee is a productive employee. Stress endured by one employee can affect other employees. As the purpose of the HR management is to retain a satisfied workforce, they should be unbiased and capable of identifying “overloaded employee”, “unclear employee” and “underutilised employee”. Has HR failed to identify the right man for the right job?

Often, the high-achievers don’t confide in a junior, as they may be looked down upon. A colleague at the same level may be a threat to their position, and confessing in a senior could mean their job is at risk.

Failure to establish a good mutual rapport with co-workers can be due to aggressive management style, bullying, lack of understanding and leadership, manager often finding faults in your work and so on.

An inability to relax or take a break can result in burnout. When an employee does not take any holidays for a long time, it is a worrying sign. Is the HR listening?

Family bonding

Personal issues like divorce, hostile family environment, financial hardships, and personal health problems all cause stress, and insipid family relationship makes you internally weak. Keeping family in harmony while climbing the corporate ladder may slow down the journey, but life will be balanced and meaningful. To address the work-life imbalance, take to some hobbies.

There is also a stigma attached to reaching out to a counselor. Being open to sharing problems with others or seeking professional support is helpful too.

Even parents today are zooming in only on “studies”. They don’t appraise their offspring that life has ups and downs, leaving them inept of handling setbacks. A moderate dose of stress is desired, as it keeps one alert, else complacency sets in.

Banks are, on paper, making a commitment to tackling workplace stress. But, are these just cosmetic initiatives used to paint over the real issues?

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

State Poll verdict unlikely to impact Lok Sabha elections

R K Sinha

December 12, 2018

The verdict in the state assembly elections in three States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh that went against the BJP should not be taken as a negative sign for the BJP in the next year’s general elections to Lok Sabha. Contrary to opinions and comments being offered by political commentators, the BJP has reason to smile though it may sound bizarre when I use this word ‘smile’ when we have lost the elections in three States. One should not forget that 15 years of incumbency is something that is not easy to defend no matter how good work the government has done. In Delhi, Sheila Dixit who did good work in Delhi was defeated after being in office for three terms at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party.

CHHATTISGARH

The poll results were on the expected lines. If there was an element of surprise, it was in Chhattisgarh where the BJP was routed. Why it is a surprise for me and many others because I visited the state in September last and went to the nerve center of Naxalites — Dantewada in Bastar. Raman Singh did commendable work by linking the forest areas of Bastar with metalled road despite heavy odds. The Maoists would blow the structure of culverts and bridges at the construction stage. The armed Naxalites killed engineers and threatened contractors to flee. Yet, the bridges were laid and road built.

The orphDantewadadren of Dantewada who lost their parents in Naxal attacks have been provided free residential school facilities. A steel plant and a Medical College and Hospital dot the skyline of Bastar. The road communication is excellent in the state. Yet, Raman Singh Government lost. What could be the reasons for the defeat of BJP? One reason that comes to my mind is Rahul Gandhi’s promise to waive agriculture loan of farmers in the state if voted to power. The Congress President also promised to give raised Minimum Support Price for crops. The second factor could be tireless work of the Congress President of Chhatisgarh Bhupesh Baghel who has been touring Chhattisgarh from the last five years raising the voice of rural population. Rural distress added to the woes of the BJP in the polls.

RAJASTHAN

Now come to Rajasthan. For the past 25 years, Rajasthan opted for change of government every five years. This time, it was the turn of the BJP government to be replaced by Congress, the Congress won and BJP got defeated. But it was not a clean sweep by the Congress which managed to get just 100 seats, the bare minimum majority mark to form the government.

Pollsters have predicted that the election verdict will affect the performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Let me remind the analysts that in 1998 State Assembly Election in Rajasthan, the Congress had won a landslide victory by bagging 153 seats of the total of 200 seats in the House. The BJP had won just 33 seats in 1998.

After a year when Lok Sabha elections were held in 1999 under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP won 16 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, 9 seats went to Congress.

It is too premature to predict that the Lok Sabha results in 2019 would have a bearing of the verdict of 2018 in three States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The state assembly elections and the general election to Lok Sabha are contested on different platforms.

MADHYA PRADESH

Credit goes to Shivraj Singh Chouhan for giving a sleepless night to the Congress on the counting day. In a see-saw battle, the Congress failed to reach the majority mark of 116 MLAs at the end of the counting. Congress won 114 seats and the BJP won 109 seats just short of 5 seats from the Congress. There is not much of difference in the share of votes between the BJP and the Congress. How one can interpret the BJP defending 15 years of incumbency gallantly. It was the performance of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh that made the voters of the state stand behind Chouhan. The victory margin of the Congress candidates was narrow. No winner in the polls from either side of the contestants could get 50 thousand vote margin of victory.

Rahul Gandhi acknowledged ‘the good work done by the BJP government in three States’.

Reacting to the outcome of the verdict in elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said victory and defeat are an integral part of life. He congratulated Congress and said, “We accept the people’s mandate with humility”. He said the family of BJP ‘karyakartas’ worked day and night for the state elections.

(The writer is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Do not have majority, won’t stake claim to form govt in MP, says Shivraj Chouhan

Afternoon Voice

December 12, 2018

Failing to lead BJP reach the magic figures in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Chouhan said that since his party lacked a majority in the Assembly polls, he will not stake claim to form the government in Madhya Pradesh.

Chouhan on Wednesday visited Governor Anandiben Patel’s office to tender his resignation. “I am free now. I have tendered my resignation to the honorable Governor. The responsibility of defeat is totally mine. We did not get majority, will not stake claim to form Government. I have congratulated Kamal Nath ji. Na haar mein, na jeet mein, kinchit nahin bhaybhit main, kartavya path par jo bhi mile, yeh bhi sahi woh bhi sahi (I am not scared either in victory or in defeat. I will continue fulfilling my duty irrespective of what I get),” Chouhan told media after his resignation.

BJP garnered 109 votes in the 230-member strong Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh. The Congress settled at 114 and has staked claim to form the government with the support of Samajwadi Party (SP) that got 1 seat and Mayawati’s BSP that bagged 2. The Congress is also in talks with four Independents who won in the state.

Speaking exclusively to ANI, Mayawati said: “Even though we do not agree with many of Congress’s policies, we have agreed to support them in Madhya Pradesh and if need be in Rajasthan.”

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too announced support to the Congress in forming the government in Madhya Pradesh.

Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath will meet Chouhan around lunch on Wednesday in a courtesy call and later attend a meeting of party MLAs which will also be attended by AK Antony as an observer to take a call on party’s Chief Minister in the state.

Congress bounces back; Oops! Dream of Congress-Mukt Bharat gets a knock-back

Twinkle Mehta

December 11, 2018

The festive season of elections now seems to have begun in a full swing with the results of crucial assembly elections in the five states namely Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Mizoram on December 11. Congress claimed its victory in three states with a mandate which has set an upstage for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls making a magnificent comeback though the Exit Polls had observed a neck-to-neck race between the BJP and the Congress.

In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, it was clear long ago that the bacteria of anti-incumbency were beginning to develop resistance to the generic Modi brand of antibiotics. It was clear that the voters had rejected the BJP in what was an indication of things to come in 2019, as trends showed on Tuesday’s vote count that Congress party got a massive victory in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and got a fair victory after a see-saw battle in Madhya Pradesh.

Mumbai Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam stated, “The country has started accepting Congress Party again and they have started realising the bluffs of the Bharatiya Janata Party and PM Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi is completely exposed. His arrogance is demolished. He has spoken a lot of lies to get some votes from the farmers, the youngsters, and the seniors. People have started realising that Bharatiya Janata Party is not a power who can run the government and who can deliver. So, it is the beginning of the end of the BJP.”

It turned out to be a nail-biting battle in Madhya Pradesh Assembly with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress taking turns to overtake each other as counting of votes was underway in the state. Congress crossed the mark leading in 114 seats and bounced back while BJP got stuck at 109 seats and couldn’t cross the magic number. Congress leader Sachin Pilot had showed the confidence that the party will form government in all the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Other independent parties shared six seats and Mayawati’s party BSP witnessed two seats.

BJP MLA Atul Save called it as anti-incumbency. “Everybody has tried hard. According to me, this will not affect the 2019 elections because this is the state elections, 2019 elections will be in Modi’s name. I don’t think there will be any problem due to the assembly elections.”

The Congress has got the victory with 66 seats in the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, leaving the BJP a distant second at 17 though the Chhattisgarh elections have historically been very close contests between the two main protagonists. Chhattisgarh has 90 assembly seats. However, BSP saw a share of four seats. Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh was leading against Congress candidate Karuna Shukla from the Rajnandgaon constituency.

In a conversation with AV, Karuna Shukla shared about the success of Congress party in the state, “Definitely, after an exile of 15 years, Congress is finally forming the government in Chhattisgarh and we all are very happy. Whatever losses that Chhattisgarh has faced in the last 15 years, the Congress will make up for all of that.”

She further added, “We have strengthened the organisation before contesting the election, we organised training camps. We provided the party workers with the voter list around three times, asking them to go to the Constituency and study the situation. The organisation worked really hard.”

On the other hand, BJP state Vice President Sarla Kosariya accepted the situation and backed the party saying, “The BJP actually did a lot of good work. If a change is coming, we should accept it, if the Congress is bringing it, but still people do trust and respect the Bharatiya Janata Party.”

The TRS is all set to form its second successive government in Telangana with a thumping majority after taking an unassailable lead in 87 seats with a ringing endorsement of party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao’s populist policies while Congress managed to get 23 seats and BJP saw a huge downfall with one seat. Of the total 199 seats that went to polls in Rajasthan, Congress secured 99 seats. The BJP managed to get 74 seats. Although the independent parties in the state saw a great number of seats to 20 which showed disgrace towards the national parties.

The opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) is leading in 26 constituencies out of 40 seats followed by the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) in eight seats while the ruling Congress is leading in 6 seats in Mizoram, according to the state election department.

The states that had a strong belt for BJP in the 2013 elections has now received a setback from them and shifted to Congress with a majority difference in the vote count. In Madhya Pradesh, Congress has seen +56 seats while BJP has gone down to 57 while in Rajasthan, Congress remarked a divergence of +77 seats and BJP noted 88 seats negative and Chhattisgarh went to have +27 in Congress’ favour while BJP lowered to -32 seats.

BJP spokesperson Suresh Nakhua commented, “As far Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are concerned, BJP had been in power for last 15 years. A strong anti-incumbency was expected. In MP we gave a neck-to-neck fight which means Shivraj Singh Chauhan is still a popular leader. As far as Rajasthan is concerned, the trend of cyclical government has continued. Not much has been lost on that. We believe that 2019 will see return of a very strong Modi government with stronger Rajya Sabha for the rest of his term which will allow him to move many key programs which he would like to bring in his second term. We congratulate Congress for their hard-earned victory and hope that they will meet people’s expectations and we will play a role of responsible opposition.”

With the assembly election result in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, it raised many doubts whether the win of Congress is a result of an anti-incumbency sentiment! Nonetheless, the nation will have to wait till 2019 to get the answers!

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