2019 elections: BJP may lose 70% seats in Hindi heartland, Congress to gain

The bulk of seats that the BJP may lose is likely to be picked up by the Congress, dramatically altering its leveraging ability

Elections: There is unanimity that the keen contest resulting in a photo finish in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan has thrown open the race for 2019. It makes sense therefore, to examine electoral statistics from the past and visualise emerging trends. Needless to say that in addition to the two states, Chhattisgarh – in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost too – is part of the Hindi heartland of north India. It is one of the two regions that propelled Narendra Modi to power in 2014. When we talk about the Hindi heartland, it refers to ten states – Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Although not really a separate region, the two other states in northern India – Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir – have to be treated separately while discussing politics in a general framework. But within the context of the BJP’s performance in 2014, these can also be clubbed with the heartland region for calculations in the run up to Elections 2019.

hese dozen states and the lone UT account for a total of 245 Lok Saha seats, of which the BJP won 196 in 2014. In addition, if you add the seats won by its allies in Bihar and UP, the total is a difficult to repeat 211. Essentially, in this block of states – which elects almost 45% of Lok Sabha members – the BJP’s opponents won just 34 seats at the height of the “Narendra Modi wave”.

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Trinamool to boycott midnight GST function, Congress and others might too

The June 30 midnight event is a function and therefore not mandatory for members to attend

Several Opposition parties are likely to boycott the June 30 midnight function in Parliament to mark the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said that her party Members of Parliament will not attend the event in protest.

While the government has invited former prime minister Manmohan Singh to share the dais with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress party is also mulling a boycott.

The June 30 midnight event is a function and not a session of parliament, and therefore not mandatory for members to attend.|economy policy 

Banerjee today said her party was deeply concerned about GST implementation. "After demonetisation, this unnecessary disastrous hurry is another epic blunder of the Centre," she said.

The West Bengal CM said her party supports GST but it required more preparation. She said the entire business community, especially the small and medium ones, are scared and confused.

"Essential commodities such as medicines are not available in many places and prices of various commodities are rising for lack of clarity and mismanagement," Banerjee said, cautioning of chaos in the wake of hurried implementation of GST.

Banerjee said her parliamentary party will stay away from the function, but advised the government to take six months more for proper implementation of GST related rules and regulations.| economy news

Meanwhile, voices are growing within the Congress favouring a boycott. There are concerns, including from the former prime minister, that the event is designed to demean first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's "tryst with destiny" speech at the midnight session of Parliament on the eve of the Indian Independence on 15 August,1947.

A final decision is likely to be taken in the evening by the Congress.

Some of Delhi govt's major initiatives could not succeed due to its constant run-ins with the Centre

As the Arvind Kejriwal government completes two conflict-ridden years in office tomorrow, some of the key poll promises made by AAP remains unfulfilled while realistic actions on the ground are seen in areas of education, health and drinking water.

The AAP, which stormed to power in February 2015 with a stunning performance of winning 67 out of 70 seats is yet to implement some of its key schemes including Wi-Fi in public zones, installing 10-15 lakh CCTV cameras across Delhi, bringing a law for devolution of power to mohallas and setting up subsidised canteens.

The AAP had promised to significantly improve the public transport but the Kejriwal dispensation could not add even a single bus to the existing fleet of the DTC. There was no progress toward fulfilling the promise of ensuring last mile connectivity.

The party had mentioned in its manifesto that eight lakh jobs will be created during the government's tenure but nothing concrete has been initiated on this front.

Some of the major initiatives of the AAP government could not see light of the day due to its constant run-ins with the Centre which adversely affected overall governance of the city.

However, newly appointed Lt Governor Anil Baijal has given indication he is ready to adopt a cooperative approach in dealing with the AAP government so as to ensure speedy implementation of developmental initiatives.

The acrimonious relations between AAP government and Centre peaked when the CBI, dealing a major blow to the Kejriwal dispensation, arrested the then Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Rajendra Kumar, along with four others, in a corruption case in July last year.

The arrests triggered a political firestorm with Kejriwal training guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on virtually every issue, deepening the rift between the two sides.

The impact of this confrontation was quite visible on the governance structure.

The pace of work by the government got affected when former LG Najeeb Jung in August last year set up a panel to examine over 400 files pertaining to Delhi government's decisions notwithstanding Kejriwal's strong objection.

The panel headed by former CAG V K Shunglu submitted its report last month wherein it pointed out many discrepancies by AAP government.

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