The Catch Up: 4 June

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
It’s the 4th of June and here are today's headlines.


With the NDA poised to form the government for a third consecutive time, bagging at least 290 seats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “historic feat”. As the INDIA bloc managed to halt the BJP’s march towards majority, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came out to hit out at the BJP, saying that the mandate today was a clear indication that the people of the country do not want to PM Modi and Amit Shah to run the country. The Opposition INDIA bloc has reversed all exit poll predictions, leading in at least 228 seats, according to the latest numbers. However, despite a stiff contest, the BJP-led NDA is inching closer towards the 300-mark, standing at 297 at the moment.

In what is probably the biggest upset state-wise, the tug-of-war for Odisha between BJP and BJD ended today with the Bharatiya Janata Party set to form the next government. Though the ruling BJD party hels various rallies and election campaigns, the saffron party has crossed the majority mark of 74. Odisha CHief Minister Naveen Patnaik served for five consecutive terms, but now the lotus party will form its first cabinet in the coastal state.

In a major setback for the BJP, Union minister Smriti Irani lost to the Congress’s K L Sharma in Amethi, as Congress wrest back power. The Amethi win comes as a big boost to the Congress, with Rahul Gandhi losing the seat to Irani in 2019. In neighbouring Rae Bareli, a Congress party bastion for decades, Rahul defeated BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh, who apologised to the people of Rae Bareli.

Behind the remarkable turnaround for the Opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh where the INDIA bloc was leading, some fascinating factors may have given them an upper hand over the BJP. One of the factors that may have worked in favour of the SP, is its ticket-distribution strategy. Unlike previous elections, the SP ticket distribution focused on non-Yadav OBCs. Also, the SP changed candidates in several constituencies, depending on feedback from local cadre and local caste equation.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its allies, the JanaSena Party (JSP) of Pawan Kalyan and BJP, are headed for a landslide in Andhra Pradesh, in what is a complete reversal of the 2019 results. This is quite a turnaround for the TDP-led alliance, which was almost written off months before the elections after its chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest. Jagan seemed to have lost focus on governance issues in trying to implement his nine welfare schemes, which he had promised during his padyatra ahead of the 2019 polls.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.