Narendra Modi kicks off Uttar Pradesh poll campaign, Jayalalithaa shuts 500 liquor stores in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee’s sworn-in as West Bengal CM
New Delhi: Last week saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) celebrate its second anniversary across the country- overall it has been an eventful period of policy change and fierce political exchanges amid global economic turmoil. While the BJP created history by winning a mandate in the just concluded elections in Assam, the forecast of an above normal monsoon by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has boosted economic sentiments. Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in Assam became concrete on Tuesday when Sarbananda Sonowalwas sworn in as the party’s first chief minister in the state. Sonowal’s swearing-in followed a similarly spectacular history made in Tamil Nadu by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief J. Jayalalithaa who took oath as the state’s chief minister on Monday. It was for the first time in three decades that the state voted the incumbent government back to power. Wednesday saw Pinarayi Vijayan take oath to become the next chief minister of Kerala, after engineering its revival in the Kerala assembly elections, winning 90 of the 140 seats and unseating Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The last chief minister to take oath was Mamata Banerjee, who was sworn in as West Bengal’s chief minister on Friday for the second consecutive time. The ceremony, which was , attended by regional political heavyweights such as National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), chief Nitish Kumar, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, raised hopes of a possible non-Congress and non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance across the country, which would play a decisive role not just in regional politics but a crucial role in the floor management in Parliament.
After scripting history in Asaam, PM Modi’s focus shifted to Uttar Pradesh where assembly elections are due next year. On the occasion of the second anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Thursday, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his government’s pro-poor and pro-farmer ideology in a rally in Uttar Pradesh, he also virtually launched the ruling coalition’s campaign for the state assembly election in 2017. It was Modi’s fourth visit to Uttar Pradesh in 50 days, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.
