Indian State Elections 2021: Jai Ho Modi

Ballot to Talk About

This week's special extended episode takes a look at this year's Indian State elections across Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and takes a wider look at the state of the two big Indian parties. It also includes a review of the recent Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeon cabinet reshuffles, as well as the changing of leadership in Northern Ireland's Unionist parties as Arlene Foster prepares to leave her role as First Minister.

As Narendra Modi enters his seventh year as India's Prime Minister and Covid-19 rages on throughout the nation, this month saw the results of this year's state elections and a mixed bag of results for the two largest alliances. Sam and Chern take a detailed look at the results across the five states and territories and then discuss the changing fortunes of the INC and BJP in recent years, as Modi starts to look ahead to the 2024 General Election. Why is Kerala such a fruitful state for Communist parties? Was West Bengal a disappointment for the Modi government and a sign of a small opposition revival? Did Covid have an impact on these results for incumbent governments just as the situation was beginning to worsen? All these questions, and more, answered in this week's podcast.

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