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politiCs

• Cast note Priyanka says she doesn’t know Modi’s
caste and vows to focus on development issues

try simply routed the Congress from has not made any tall claims but main- man outside a booth in West Bengal.
these states. The Congress used tained their candidates have performed Polling was also held in part of Anant-
to have provincial governments fairly well in the just concluded polls in nag constituency of Jammu and Kash-
in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, this region. mir, which saw a just turnout of 13.61
Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh Lok Sabha polls for 302 constituen- per cent. Polls in this constituency has
until 2014. Now it has lost all these States cies out of 543 have been finished with been scheduled in three phases. High-
including Tripura and Nagaland to the completion of third phase. The larg- est poll 77.67 per cent was recorded
either BJP or its allies. est phase of Lok Sabha elections re- in Kerala. Until third phase, polling in
This time Congress is expecting elec- corded 64.66-percentage poll covering Bihar 14 constituencies have gone for
toral dividends out of much debated 116 constituencies. The poll completed poll remaining 26 would go to poll in
controversial Citizenship Amendment amid complaints of EVM malfunc- 4-7 phase of polling. Similarly, Uttar
Bill (CAB) brought in by ruling BJP. The tioning in many states and killing of a Pradesh would go for remaining 54
Bill sparked massive protests and seri- seats out of 80 as by now 26 constituen-
ous repercussions among northeast- cies have gone to poll. Madhya Pradesh
ern ethnic groups. Most of the people There is a battle of 29, Rajasthan 25, West Bengal 32,
in northeast India opposed the saffron alliances between Odisha 6, Maharashtra 17, Jammu Kash-
plan to welcome persecuted religious mir 2 was due to go to poll in next 4-7
asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Paki- the DMK-Congress phases of schedule.
stan and Afghanistan, who had already and AIADMK-BJP-led Now the main battlefield has shifted
entered the country before 31 Decem- from to Hindi heartland from south
ber 2014. factions in Tamil Nadu where real test of popularity has begun.
The region, surrounded by Nepal, while other key players Now a tough challenge is before PM
Bhutan, Tibet (China), Myanmar and Narendra Modi to overcome victori-
Bangladesh, sends 25 members to Lok in the fray include ous is ahead as congress governments
Sabha, but this time BJP leadership has Kamal Haasan’s rules two states-Madhya Pradesh and
taken the share very seriously. BJP pres- Rajasthan and in rest of states his party
ident Amit Shah claims that his saffron MNM and TTV is facing anti-incumbency.
party along with allies will win over 20 Dhinakaran’s AMMK
seats from the region. The Congress letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 15 may 2019 23 www.Tehelka.com