Reflection on the #ElectionResults2022 in the 5 states.
2 min readMar 10, 2022
- UP chose saffron clad Yogi Adityanath who rejected superstition of visiting Noida as a CM against the liberal media darling Akhilesh who refused to visit Noida & added to vaccine hesitancy.
- UP has decisively rejected mafia and gunda raj. If anyone had forgotten what it means saw some hints in actions and words of SP leaders and its cadre after the exit polls.
- UP has voted for development and law & order. People who hate BJP will call it ‘Dismantling the Republic’ like Yogendra Yadav said on NDTV. Its time to see beyond hate and respect the people’s mandate.
- AAP’s win in Punjab is a refusal of politics that has kept the state backward for decades now. AAP now has to deliver on issues of drug menace, depleting groundwater, desertification of the land of 5 rivers and control pollution in Delhi due to stubble burning.
- Jitan Ram Manjhi was installed in Bihar as a proxy CM, it was difficult for Nitish Kumar to control him sitting in Bihar! It will be interesting to see how Kejriwal controls/manages Bhagwant Mann in Punjab. Next 5 years will be crucial for Kejriwal’s leadership & AAP.
- Punjab has around 31% Dalit population, still it rejected a Dalit as CM. While caste still plays an important role in electoral politics but identities beyond caste have been playing a decisive role post 2014.
- In the CAA and Farmer protests, the avenues got concentrated around NCR for the convenience of Delhi based media which everyone has realized has disproportionate share in narrative building. Having realized Kerala & West Bengal model are too violent and won’t sell, Delhi model will now be propagated as a national alternative. While BJP is a natural choice of voters, it will face its biggest challenge in building a narrative among first and second time voters.
- Since I work in Arunachal Pradesh, I can’t avoid mentioning how poor the election coverage has been for Manipur in these elections. Fascinating work was done by Biren Singh in a difficult border state and its sad that it got almost no coverage.
