Tough battle for Modi as state elections begin
Results in West Bengal and Assam key for BJP to tighten its grip on power nationally
KOLKATA // Millions of voters went to the polls yesterday in two Indian states, with prime minister Narendra Modi’s party facing a tough fight as it tries to tighten its grip on power nationally.
Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must win state elections to gain more seats in the nation’s upper house of parliament, which has been blocking reforms regarded as crucial to fuelling economic growth. Most members of the upper house, which has obstructed measures such as a planned standardised goods and services tax, are indirectly elected by state legislatures. The Hindu nationalist BJP is seen as having little chance in West Bengal against a feisty chief minister popular with millions of impoverished voters.
It has a better chance of gaining power for the first time in Assam, where it has promised to crack down on illegal immigra- tion from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Mr Modi’s party swept to power in a general election two years ago promising business-friendly reforms to overhaul the economy, but lost out last year in two critical state polls.
Analyst Neelanjan Sircar said the ruling party desperately needed a win in state polls this year.
“The BJP is clearly not doing well in the state elections and if they do not win one this year, they would have gone without having won a single state election for nearly two years, which is not good for any party,” said Mr Sircar, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.
“The only state in which the BJP may do well is Assam, and it is important for them to win this so that their base feels energised and the morale of the party workers is boosted.”
Polls opened at 7am (5.30am UAE) yesterday, with about 3.8 million voters eligible to cast their ballots in West Bengal and 9.4 million in Assam.
State elections are being held in phases, with about 85 million people eligible to vote.
Security was tight in West Bengal, with several of the contested seats in impoverished regions where Maoist rebels have long been battling government rule.
Armed police have been sent, along with helicopters, to try to ensure polling runs smoothly, election commission officials said. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a 61- year- old former national railways minister known affectionately as “Didi”, or elder sister, is expected to remain in power. But a row over the collapse last week of a flyover under construction in Kolkata, which claimed 26 lives, could cost her Trinamool Congress party some votes.
Ms Banerjee’s political rivals have accused the government of failing to tackle problems with the project that began in 2009 and was supposed to take only 18 months.
Biswanath Chakraborty, a political scientist in Kolkata, said the disaster had “tainted the party for the first time since it came to power five years ago”.
In Assam, known for its tea plantations and myriad rebel insurgencies, the BJP has teamed up with local parties that support indigenous rights and has pledged a crackdown on illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
Migrants have long been accused of illegally entering the state from Bangladesh and grabbing land, causing tensions with local people and sporadic outbreaks of religious violence.
Analysts say the popularity of the traditionally dominant Congress party is waning in Assam, offering the BJP its one chance of state election success.
The southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry will also hold elections this month and next, but the BJP is not expected to win in any of these.
Counting and the release of results for all five states will take place on May 19.