Entry of Arvind Kejriwal
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 14, 2024 -

WITH the fourth phase of election to the 18th Lok Sabha covering 96 constituencies across 9 states and one Union Territory conducted on May 13; the five-yearly electoral exercise of electing representatives by the people of India is half-way through its seven phases.

With the electoral exercise covering some of the most important constituencies in major states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, jharkhand, Odisha, etc., it is considered to be one of the most important phases of the Lok Sabha election 2024 for all the political parties involved.

With as many as 24 candidates in the fray for the seat of Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, this is also the first major election in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of jammu and Kashmir.

Interestingly, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not fielded any candidate in three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir for the first time in about three decades even though the government led by it succeeded in abrogating the contentious Article after many years.

On the other hand, as the earlier three phases had consistently recorded lower voter turnout in comparison to the 2019 polls, how the fourth phase is going to fare in deciding the fate of many key political leaders in the electoral battle such as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BJP leader Giriraj Singh, TMC leader Mahua Moitra, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, JDU's Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) and Andhra Pradesh Congress Chief YS Sharmila, is becoming a serious concern among the political parties.

Perhaps, this may be the reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tweeted early in the morning of May 13 itself exhorting the people in these constituencies to come out in large numbers to do "our duty and strengthen our democracy".

Even though some psephologists may have cited soaring mercury levels while others pointed to urban apathy for the lower turnout of voters in the election so far, lopsidedness of the 18th Lok Sabha in the absence of a level playing field is something that could not be overlooked.

Right from the word go, the opposition parties have been at a disadvantageous position with their bank accounts either frozen or their leaders forced to land in jail over one case or another.

The questionable conduct of Election Commission of India (ECI) in ignoring blatant violations of model code of conduct (MCC) by ruling party leaders including the Prime Minister while issuing notices to Opposition leaders even on frivolous complaints has also come under scrutiny, prompting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to write a letter to leaders of the opposition alliance parties, urging them to unitedly oppose the ECl's shenanigans.

However, the political imbalance seems to have been corrected to some extent after Chief Minister of Delhi and national convenor of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal came out from Tihar jail and joined the campaign trail following granting of freedom till june i by the Supreme Court.

Apart from bringing cheers to the AAP camp, an upswing in the mood of the entire opposition bloc is also evident from senior opposition leaders like Pawan Khera, who is the chairman of Media & Publicity Department of AICC, starting to refer Narendra Modi as becoming "former Prime Minister" on june 4 and a "happy" Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, hailing the apex court's judgement as "very helpful in the context of the current elections".

Of course, none can say for sure how far the physical presence of Arvind Kejriwal in the election campaign is going to help the opposition alliance, but the ruling BJP now ha to definitely rethink its strategies and recalibrate the moves if it wants to retain all the seven seats in Delhi and restrict an upsurge of AAP in Punjab as the usual political barbs have no more spell to draw people to the polling booths.