The exit polls had predicted a return of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to power in Kerala, but even hardcore supporters did not anticipate such a decisive verdict. Kerala not only voted Pinarayi Vijayan, 75, back to power, breaking a four-decade-old trend of alternate front governments—the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)led LDF or the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF)—but also gave the ruling coalition 99 of 140 seats, eight more than its tally in 2016.
Pinarayi’s victory, which trumped anti-incumbency, high-profile cases of alleged corruption, including the gold smuggling scam, the government’s handling of women’s entry in the Sabarimala temple issue and daily rising cases of Covid, the third highest in the country, underlines his position as the undisputed mass leader within the CPI(M). It also places him as a key figure, along with Mamata Banerjee and M.K. Stalin, in a possible opposition coalition that could challenge the BJP in the general election in 2024. In the process, the opposition UDF was reduced to 41 seats, with the Congress winning only 21 of those. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, was in an even more pitiable state, failing to even keep its first ever seat in the state, Nemom, which it had won in 2016. “In 2016, the BJP opened its account with a seat in Nemom,” Pinarayi had told the media days before the elections. “We will close that account this time.” And when he actually did it, he also took the CPI(M) to a commanding tally of 67 seats in the LDF alliance.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 17, 2021 من India Today.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 17, 2021 من India Today.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Grand Young Master
Seventeen-yearold D. Gukesh has become the youngest player to win the Candidates chess tournament
SPORTING SPIRIT
BADMINTON PLAYER ASHWINI PONNAPPA, 34, IS OFF TO HER THIRD OLYMPICS, THIS TIME WITH A NEW PARTNER, TANISHA CRASTO
PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE
Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
Centennial Man
A seminal exhibition of K.G. Subramanyan's works in his birth centenary year at Emami Art, Kolkata takes an imaginative and immersive curatorial approach
Rhythms of Nature
ARTIST AND MUSIC COMPOSER GINGGER SHANKAR'S LATEST SINGLE COMBINES SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC WITH INUIT THROAT SINGING
SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND
Kashmiri musician Faheem Abdullah’s debut album Lost; Found is a collaborative effort
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
With its excellent translations, Songs of Tagore makes Rabindrasangit accessible to the non-Bengali reader
Of Freedom and Friendship
T.C.A. RAGHAVAN'S CIRCLES OF FREEDOM FOLLOWS THREE YOUNG MUSLIMS DRAWN INTO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The Razor's Edge
Salman Rushdie's Knife is an eloquent, first-person account of the horrific attack on him. It's also a love story
THE LAST-MILE PUSH
The India Today Smart Money Financial Summit had top experts discussing how technology could be leveraged to widen the reach of personal finance tools