The results of the 2024 elections provided key lessons on ideology, social welfare and caste census.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Voters in the recent assembly elections have a lot to say about women, caste census and Hindutva. | Photo credit: Reuters

The results of Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra cannot be seen solely as a determining factor in who will form the next government in these states, but have long-term implications with regard to the issues they settle, at least for the foreseeable future, in the political domain. speech. The ideas and stories that resonate with the people and a guide for political parties on what works and what doesn’t.

Maharashtra Election Results 2024, LIVE Updates | Jharkhand Election Results 2024, LIVE Updates

Women and well-being

The biggest takeaway from the two big Assembly polls is the fact that both the incumbent governments have announced income support schemes for women – ‘Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana’ in Maharashtra and ‘Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana” of Jharkhand would be the game changers of the elections.

In Maharashtra, women’s poll participation rate increased by at least 6% from 2019, with the polling rate standing at 65.1% in 2024, up from 59.2% in 2019.

In Jharkhand too, women voted more than men in the 32nd Assembly. Overall also, more women voted than men in the state, as the state, with a total of 2.61 crore registered voters, saw 1.76 crore people cast their votes, among them women got 91.16 lakh votes, surpassing men’s turnout by 5.52 lakh votes.

It is therefore very clear that, as in the past, women and social measures aimed at them can help build up a base of support above traditional castes and categories.

Caste census

The BJP’s victory in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan in the 2023 assembly elections would have closed the door to caste census, but in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with the “samvidhan khatre main hai» (The Constitution is in Danger) among the marginalized sections, the issue has once again gained ground. Large swathes of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh saw marginalized sections voting for the INDIA bloc and concerns were raised that the BJP’s reservations would end if it secured a large majority at the Centre. This issue was expected to arise in the Assembly elections as well, but it seems to have subsided.

What does this demonstrate? That the BJP, after missteps in the general elections, leveraged the OBC leadership it had cultivated and acquired from the 1990s through its years of social engineering, and the gains it made achieved thanks to the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the penetration of civil society into the party. RSS among Scheduled Castes.

Historically, the BJP has been the party of OBCs in Maharashtra, and this has been reflected in these polls. The lesson for the Congress on the issue of caste census is therefore that it must first cultivate credible OBC leadership within itself to capture the support base. Without this, the demand for a caste census will be presented in the BJP narrative as a ploy to fragment Hindu votes and nothing else, an explanation perhaps of why the “Batenge to Katenge» (divided we perish) and “Ek hai toh sure hai» The slogans (Together we are safe) worked.

Does ideology matter? A Case Study of Hindutva in Maharashtra

The opportunistic back-and-forth of several parties in Maharashtra has created a fragmented political landscape, with social measures and local loyalties meant to help parties win and defeat being seen as an erosion of ideology.

With Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) prevailing over Shiv Sena (UBT) in the elections, one aspect of the Hindutva vote – the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray – has been decided, but what is even more significant is the Vidarbha contest where visited the BJP and the Congress. face to face.

The Congress and the BJP were the only two parties that did not split and remained ideologically firm. The former had defeated the latter in the Lok Sabha elections on the issue “The Constitution is in danger” – this erosion of support among the SCs, STs and OBCs was also a major blow to the Hindutva project, as the support from these communities made Hindutva subservient. broader in character and base, and a less politically fragmented Hindu society.

The BJP coined the slogan “Batenge toh Katenge” to overcome this Hindutva vote fragmentation and worked hard to win back Dalit and ST votes, deploying Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and Bhupendra Yadav months in advance to court. In these polls, among the 75 seats between the BJP and the Congress, the BJP won 64 and the Congress 9, restoring the subaltern character of Hinduvta, and reiterated that politics, even in a fragmented poll , was based on ideology.