Indian Elections 2009

Flush with the success of the Lok Sabha elections, the four pre-poll allies of the Congress have begin negotiating for their share of the pie.

• UPA allies battle for their share of the spoils, Hindustan Times, May 20 2009

The DMK has already asked for seven cabinet positions. I guess their logic is that if they ask for seven, they will get five.

• DMK demands 7 cabinet berths; meeting with Pranab inconclusive, Indian Express, May 20 2009

Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference has also expressed a desire for a cabinet post for the party (read him).

Mamta Banerjee has not yet expressed a desire to join the cabinet in Delhi, claiming to be concentrating on the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal in 2011. As expected, the party has called for pre-poning the elections.

• Mamata yet to take decision on joining UPA cabinet, Indian Express, May 20 2009

NCP has been quiet so far …

May 20th, 2009 | Tags: allies, DMK, National Conference, NCP, Trinamool Congress, UPA government, UPA/Congress | Category: DMK, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, National Conference, Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Comments (1)

With 261 seats in it’s bag, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is confident of getting support of 11 additional MPs to cross the magic number of 272 needed for a majority in the parliament. Speculation is rife in main stream media that the parties that constituted the fourth front (RJD,SP and LJP) will not be invited to support the UPA government; instead the UPA will rely on like-minded independents and smaller parties to make up for the shortfall.

Apart from the Congress party that won 206 seats on it’s own, the UPA consists of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, M. Karunanidhi’s DMK, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference, who won the remaining 55. Leaders of these four parties are expected to be part of the new cabinet. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also expected to join the cabinet.

The PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will give his resignation to the President on Monday who will ask him to continue as the interim-PM. The Election Commission will present the list of successful Lok sabha candidates to President Pratibha Patil on Monday evening.

Dr. Manmohan Singh is expected to be sworn in as the PM either on 20 or 22 May 2009.

May 17th, 2009 | Tags: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha elections, lok sabha results, UPA/Congress | Category: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Election Results, Elections, Indian Politics, National Conference, Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Comments (1)

Counting of ballots in all 543 seats began this morning at 8:00 a.m IST. No trends have been apparant so far.

• India all set for vote count , Hindustan Times, May 16 2009
• आज तय हो जाएगा किसकी बनेगी सरकार, आज तक, May 16 2009

We will keep you posted.

May 15th, 2009 | Tags: Lok Sabha elections | Category: Indian Politics, Political Parties, States, coalitions/alliances | Leave a comment

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa announced that she had got feelers from “many places” and would decide on her strategy after the results are out. Her party is currently part of the Third Front alliance and had combined forces with Left parties, PMK and MDMK in Tamil Nadu.

• Several parties are trying to woo me: Jayalalithaa , Hindustan Times, May 13 2009

Her party is expected to do well in these polls and win seats over DMK, the party that is currently ruling Tamil Nadu.

These statements are similar to the ones made by Ms. Jayalalithha in the past. (See previous post where she wooed Congress).  Ms. Jayalalitha hopes to be the PM-maker after the polls if not the PM herself.

May 13th, 2009 | Tags: AIADMK, coalitions/alliances, Jayalalithaa, Lok Sabha elections, post-poll alliance, Third Front | Category: AIADMK, Indian Politics, Jayalalithaa, TamilNadu, Third Front, coalitions/alliances | Leave a comment

Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi said today that he was sure of left’s support of Congress PM after the elections. This indicates intense negotiations behind closed doors between the Congress and the left parties.

• Rahul Gandhi reaches out to Left to form Govt after polls, Hindustan Times, May 5 2009
• Rahul woos Left, confident of their support for Manmohan, Indian Express, May 5 2009
• Bengal CPI(M) declines to comment on Rahul’s statement. The Hindu, May 5 2009

It could also mean that Manmohan Singh will step down as PM and Rahul Gandhi will take over. The left parties were opposed to Manmohan Singh specially his foreign policies (like the Nuclear treaty with the US) Congress is hopeful that the left front will be fine with Rahul Gandhi as the PM.

This public announcement takes us back to the question we raised in one of our previous post - If Trinamool Congress and Congress are allies and Left parties support Congress; then jTrinamool and Left parties allies or adversarie

May 5th, 2009 | Tags: Communist Parties, Dr. Manmohan Singh, post-poll alliance, Rahul Gandhi, UPA/Congress | Category: Communist Parties, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, Rahul Gandhi, Third Front, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Leave a comment

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, leader of JD(U) and a key member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has made public statements reiterating his closeness to the left parties. He has also stated that he has no plans of joining the Congress lead, United Progressive Alliance (UPA), thus refuting public statements made by Shiela Dikshit that Congress is in talks with JD (U). Nitish Kumar stated that he has no plans of a post poll alliance with the Third Front.

• JD(U), Left old friends, says Nitish, Indian Express, May 4 2009
• Nitish rubbishes Sheila’s claim of him aligning with Congress, The Hindu, May 4 2009

The statement has raised important questions like whether the NDA is sending feelers to the Third Front or is the JD(U) planning to join the Front if the poll numbers are in it’s favour. With two more phases remaining in this election, this statement does carry weight.

May 4th, 2009 | Tags: Bihar, NDA/BJP, Nitish Kumar, Third Front | Category: Bihar, Communist Parties, Indian Politics, NDA/BJP, National Security, Nitish Kumar, Terrorism, Third Front, coalitions/alliances | Leave a comment

Second Phase of the Lok Sabha election was conducted today for 140 constituencies spread over 12 states. Key contestants who faced the electorate today included Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar.

Constituencies in Jharkhand once again faced some Maoist attacks, but fortunately no casualties were reported unlike phase I. Jharkhand witnessed moderate turnout. This was also the first time in this election that a constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, Udhampur, went to polls. Initial reports indicated a poor turnout.

• Millions vote in phase two of Election 2009, Hindustan Times, Apr 23 2009
• Heat wave, Naxals mar voting in 2nd phase, Indian Express, Apr 23 2009

April 23rd, 2009 | Tags: Lok Sabha elections, second phase | Category: Elections, States, coalitions/alliances | Comments (2)