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07-10-2024
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ SRINAGAR: India’s ruling party is projected to have lost two key provincial elections to the main opposition Congress party and its allies, exit polls showed, suggesting another setback after the party fared poorly in national elections.
Local media reported that Congress had a clear advantage in exit polls in the northern state of Haryana, indicating an end to a decade of rule by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. The opposition also held an edge in the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The two elections were held in phases that ended on Saturday. Votes will be counted on Tuesday and results will be announced the same day. The exit poll results were released late on Saturday.
Exit polls, conducted by private polling firms including TV broadcasters, have a patchy record in India, which analysts say poses a particular challenge due to its large and diverse voting population.
The exit polls had projected Modi’s BJP would win a large majority in the general election in June but it fell short and had to depend on regional parties to secure a majority and form a coalition government.
The two Indian territories are the first to go to the polls since the national elections.
India’s industrial hub of Maharashtra and the mineral-rich eastern state of Jharkhand, next up in provincial elections, are awaiting the announcement of poll dates that are expected to be in November.
The Jammu and Kashmir election was the first in a decade in the Himalayan region, which has endured years of militant violence. It is India’s only Muslim-majority territory and has been at the centre of a dispute with neighboring Pakistan since 1947. Its status as a special semi-autonomous entity was revoked in 2019 by Modi’s government, which says the move has helped to restore normalcy in the area and boosted development.
Voters queued outside polling stations in India’s Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday to vote in the first provincial election being held in a decade in the Himalayan region that has grappled with years of militant violence.
The nine million registered voters are choosing members for the region’s 90-seat legislature in the three-phase election. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8 and results expected the same day.
“I gave my vote for development. For the last ten years, we were unable to exercise our democratic right and I am happy that … I am able to cast my ballot,” said Mohammad Asim Bhat, a 23-year-old first-time voter.
Jammu and Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority territory and has been at the centre of a dispute with neighboring Pakistan since 1947. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part, after having fought two of their three wars over the region.
Until 2019, Indian-ruled Jammu and Kashmir had a special status of partial autonomy that was revoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision and set a deadline of Sept. 30 this year for local polls to be held.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) government has said that revoking the region’s special status restored normalcy in the area and helped its development.
“As the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections begins.”
In the past, pro-independence militants have targeted elections in Kashmir, and voter turnout has been largely weak. The territory, however, recorded its highest turnout in 35 years in national elections held in April and May, with a 58.46% participation rate.
