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Nationalism narrative in

general election

than hundred civil society groups
BJP alone captured over 300 Parliamentary seats in 543 member and opposition political parties in-
Lok Sabha (LS) where the magic number to form the federal cluding the Congress put the region
government in New Delhi is 272, reports Nava Thakuria

midst all criticisms for Amidst all negative speculations,
majority based politics, aroused of anti-citizenship amend-
Hindu-centric propagan- ment bill (CAB) rows in Brahmaputra
das and one man worship, valley along with various other parts
A the ruling Bhartiya Janata of the region, the BJP succeeded in
Party (BJP) led National Democratic increased its tally from seven to nine
Alliance (NDA) emerged victorious in LS seats in Assam, where the opposi-
India’s general election with an inher- tion Congress could retain its three
ent undercurrent of cautious national- seats and All India United Democratic
ism. The populous country witnessed Front (AIUDF) got reduced to the lone
many weeks long electoral exercise LS seat party.
where over 700 million voters par- No insurgent outfits threatened the
ticipated in the process to send their people to boycott elections this time
representatives to the lower house of in the region, where the dedicated vot-
Parliament. ers exercised their franchises with an
BJP alone captured over 300 Par- impressive over 80% turn out. Making
liamentary seats in 543 member Lok it a habit to defy the diktats of sepa-
Sabha (LS) where the magic number to ratist militants all the years, the elec-
form the federal government in New torate sealed the fate of candidates
Delhi is 272 and NDA crosses the mark in EVM (supported by VVPAT) and
of 350 LS seats, which is far better than reposed faiths on the largest multi-
the last general elections in 2014. The party democracy on Earth. Not less
nationalist political party, led by hard-
liner Prime Minister Narendra Modi
also succeeded in spreading its pres-
ence to almost all corners of the vast
south-Asian country. Even in the res- No insurgent outfits
tive northeast India, where separatist
elements once run almost parallel ad- threatened the people
ministrations in various parts, the Lo- to boycott elections
tus bloomed for the saffron party. The
region with 25 Parliamentary seats this time in the region,
was swept by the BJP and its allies to
elect 18 members to the NDA tally in where the dedicated
17th Lok Sabha. More importantly, the voters exercised their
Arunachal Pradesh voters have elect-
ed a BJP government in Itanagar and franchises with an
Sikkim electorate chosen NDA consti- impressive over 80%
tute Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM)
for the new government in Gangtok. turn out

Tehelka / 15 June 2019 20 www.Tehelka.com