| SCs, STs and women discard Congress and the like parties | | 2014 election: Some interesting facts | | Rustam
JAMMU, May 26: The 2014 general elections were significant on many counts. One, these elections decimated most of the "secular" parties across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir where the NC and Congress remained at the helm for almost 62 years. The coalition contested election in all the six seats, but failed to open its account. In the 15th Lok Sabha, the Congress and the NC had 5 members. Two, these elections ended an era of coalition politics much to the chagrin of "secularists" and those who practiced politics of blackmail, including the NC leadership. Three, it was after 25 long years that the nation got a strong and stable Government. No one had ever thought that it would happen, but the Indian electorate proved them completely wrong. The BJP-led NDA won 335 seats out of 543 seats, with the BJP's own tally being 282 and the tallies of its allies 54.
There are some more interesting facts. First, the BJP-led NDA alliance garnered a staggering 62 per cent of all seats reserved for scheduled casts. The BJP contested in 62 out of 84 seats and won 40 (47.6 per cent). Of this, six were women. Its allies won 9 SC seats. In other words, the BJP and its allies won 49 out of 84 SC seats (62 per cent). The remaining 35 seats were shared by the AIDMK, TMC, BJD, Congress and so on. Interestingly, the BSP, the so-called champion of the SCs, failed to open its account. In the 15th Lok Sabha, the BSP had more than 20 members. Second, there are 48 seats in the Lok Sabha reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). The BJP contested in 40 and won 27. Its allies won two ST seats. In other words, the BJP and its allies won 29 seats. Besides, the BJP fielded three ST candidates in general constituencies and won all the three. Three, the BJP fielded 38 women in the 428 seats it contested and won 30. The 16th Lok Sabha will have 62 women members and 48.38 per cent of them are from the BJP. And last but not the least, the BJP fielded 8 Muslim candidates, including its national spokesperson and former Union Minister Shah Nawaz Hussain, but none of them could make it to the Lok Sabha.
These statistics clearly show that the SCs, STs and womenfolk have abandoned the "secular" parties and swung solidly behind the BJP and its allies. It's no wonder that even the critics of the BJP have acknowledged that the BJP is the only pan-India political party that also enjoys the confidence of bulk of the population consisting of different social groups. |
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