"UP ne kamaal kar diya (UP did an incredible thing)....” That was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when asked about the Lok Sabha result in Uttar Pradesh. It is, in fact, the “UP ke ladke”, as Rahul and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are fondly called in UP, who have managed to do the ‘incredible’, stun the BJP despite the Ram temple and the Modi-Yogi double engine hype.
The Congress-SP alliance won 43 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats (SP 37 and Congress six), restricting the BJP-led NDA to just 36 seats in the state, a feat that has huge ramifications. UP had propelled Narendra Modi’s rise to power in 2014, sending 71 BJP MPs to the Lok Sabha; in 2019, it helped him consolidate his grip by electing 62 party candidates, along with two of ally Apna Dal (S). This time, UP was meant to set the ball rolling for an even larger mandate, but that was not to be. Prime Minister Modi’s own victory margin of 152,513 votes in Varanasi—less than a third of the 479,000-odd he got in 2019—was prime evidence of how the BJP had lost the plot in UP.
SAFFRON GETS A SHOCK
Of the 12 members of the Union cabinet who contested again in UP, only five managed a return ticket to Parliament, among them PM Modi and defence minister Rajnath Singh. The list of those who fell by the wayside includes Smriti Irani in Amethi, Ajay Mishra Teni (whose son allegedly mowed down four people during the anti-farm laws protest) in Kheri and Sanjeev Balyan (an accused in the 2013 riots) in Muzaffarnagar. Irani’s defeat summed up the anti-BJP sentiment in some seats. She lost to Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma—who had been informed he was contesting just a day before the nominations—by over 167,000 votes.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 17, 2024 من India Today.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 17, 2024 من India Today.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A Life IN MUSIC
To celebrate five decades of a storied musical career, Padma Shri Hariharan is headlining a special concert in Delhi on November 30
MURDERS MOST FOUL
SAMYUKTA BHOWMICK'S DEBUT NOVEL, A FATAL DISTRACTION, IS A WHODUNIT THAT GOES BEYOND MERELY PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE
Jungle Book
Avtar Singh creates a compelling tableau of characters brought together and torn asunder by migration, epidemic and circumstance
BON VOYAGE
The award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi is coming to Mumbai this December
Earning His ACTING CHOPS
HIS LATEST STINT IN THE BUCKINGHAM MURDERS, WHICH JUST RELEASED ON NETFLIX, CEMENTS THE MULTI-HYPHENATE RANVEER BRAR'S REPUTATION AS A FINE ACTOR
Strike a Pose
SOONI TARAPOREVALA'S SERIES DEBUT WAACK GIRLS ON PRIME VIDEO SHINES A LIGHT ON THE STREET DANCE STYLE OF WAACKING
FATAL ATTRACTION
In I Want to Talk, Shoojit Sircar continues his exploration of death with the portrait of a tenacious man who beats it time and again
LOVE LETTER TO THE MOUNTAINS
'Journeying Across the Himalayas' is a new multidisciplinary festival in Delhi with a focus on the Himalayan region and its communities
The Art of CURATION
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, on how one of our biggest multi-disciplinary festivals came about and what to look forward to in this edition
THE ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
A US court's allegations of bribery in solar power contracts and US markets watchdog SEC's charges of concealing wrongdoings have jolted Gautam Adani's business empire. Even as he mounts a strong defence against the indictment, the group faces a crisis of investor confidence that may impact its growth plans