The election, the result
A coalition is not anathema to politics in India and we have seen many a government at the Centre, before 2014, running on the basis of a large coalition. The Bharatiya Janata Party was successful in getting a majority on its own for long but will now have to be pragmatic when running the nation. It will have to listen to its partners and even the Opposition given the ground realities.
Arun Kumar Mahadevan,
Chennai
The outcome of the parliamentary elections has thrown up many points: with respect to the BJP, the widely held presumption was that Narendra Modi’s magic would create wonders and pulverise the Opposition. This is now a myth. The next is that the tide of fortune has not ebbed from the saffron party. On the contrary, there seems to have been a silent mood of anti-incumbency. The aggressive invoking of communal and religious sentiments failed to move voters. Burning issues such as unemployment and price rise have cost the party dear. It is imperative for the BJP to analyse its performance at the hustings.
V. Johan Dhanakumar,
Chennai
Undoubtedly, it is the sentiments of the rural and poor populace, who have been at the receiving end of the corporate-friendly and exploitative policies and decisions of the Modi government, that played a major role in this election. But in scrutinising the various factors that dictated the election results, it is the effect of urban apathy that also needs to be evaluated.
K. Anand,
Chevayur, Kozhikode, Kerala
Gains and losses are natural in any contest. They have to be taken in one’s stride. The BJP, knowingly or unknowingly, thrust its policies on the public, which it thought would be well received by marketing itself as a good dispensation after a long spell of Congress rule. But there have been a number of occasions when the BJP either soared or slid in its years of rule from 2014 to 2024. Towards the end of its second term, there was a misuse of central agencies by the BJP. The verdict has come as oxygen to the affected. People hope that the BJP, in amity with its allies, forms the new government and also realises its past follies.
Mani Nataraajan,
Chennai
The people of this diverse country have spoken and they will not be straitjacketed by a homogenising political project that imposes on them a ‘one leader, one party, one religion’.
It may be a third consecutive term in power for the BJP, which is no doubt an achievement, but the verdict carries with it a warning that the BJP can ill-afford to either ignore or downplay.
Nagarajamani M.V.,
Hyderabad