Article, Paragraph, Essay on “A Trail of two Cities” article for Class 10, Class 12, Graduation Classes and descriptive examination

A Trail of two Cities

Election results of two poll bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are not surprising for political observers. A win for BJP in these states was announced beforehand through several exit polls. Congress also wasn’t expecting any extraordinary verdict. So what is the purpose of extracting these results?

There are more than one reasons for doing this actually. These assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh were a matter of utter prestige of BJP, especially in Gujarat where PM Modi’s reputation was at stake. It was Gujarat where BJP was reigning since almost two decades. They couldn’t afford to have lost this battle of votes here. So, BJP under the leadership of Modi and Amit Shah invested their best possible techniques to win the hearts of gujju people on one hand and to beat the anti-encumbency factor on the other.

Himachal Pradesh was a bit easier task for BJP as the last stint of Virbhadra Singh as CM in the state was full of corruption charges against him particularly during the last year. The anti-encumbency factor as well as the Himachali voters history towards replacing political parties after every five years enrouted BJP to secure a victory in the hill state. It wrested Himachal from Congress by winning 44 seats out of 68 constituencies.

Although BJP managed to form government in both the states but one thing was quite striking for it that people unanimously rejected its chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal along with several veterans who lost against their respective rivals and inspite of getting increased percentage of votes its seats tally lowered down. BJP national president Amit Shah had strongly pitched in his massive rallies that his party is going to win more than 150 seats in Gujarat but it settled for only 99 eventually out of 182 member assembly.

Congress once again failed to outperform BJP in Gujarat and fell short in saving its face in Himachal as well. It secured 77 seats in Gujarat whereas 21 in Himachal Pradesh. Without a doubt, Rahul Gandhi’s cast curry experiment bore fruit this time in Gujarat and party’s dalit face Jignesh Mewani and OBC leader Alpesh Thakur both won their respective seats. Hardik Patel, too, was successful in polarizing Patidar votes against BJP. It wouldn’t be overstated If we say that beyond anti-encumbency, and people’s anger over GST and Demonitization, these three leaders are the principal reason of BJP’s downfall from 115 seats in 2012 to just 99 in 2017.

By the commencement of these assembly elections, both the national level rivals have begun preparing for the litmus test of general elections in 2019. BJP has pushed its motto of a India without Congress. Having governments in 19 states of the country, BJP’s lotus is blooming like never before and the man of the hour Shri Narendra Modi is in the central stage of all this. He has proved like always that his charisma hasn’t faded, in fact, by every election it is shining more than before.

On the other side of the coin, newly elected president of Congress Rahul Gandhi has a major challenge to revive the party which is fighting the battle of survival and boost up the morale of its cadre. The way ahead wouldn’t be a cake walk for him. He would’ve to show his strength in all possible ways because he has a competent and dynamic opponent in front of him. He cannot afford a single mistake. Beginning of his journey isn’t that bad, he has nothing to lose but everything to gain from this point.

As of now, the Modi magic is prevalent in Indian political scenario and it’s not going to disappear anytime soon.

By

Satendra