- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are top 10 events that happened in Indian politics in 2022:
Aam Aadmi Party winning Punjab and Delhi municipal elections, emerges as national party:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal took a major step towards fulfilling its national dream in 2022, less than a decade after it was established, by forming its second government in the northern state of Punjab after Delhi where its national convener Arvind Kejriwal is the chief minister. The AAP won the elections in Punjab decisively in March by capturing 92 out of 117 seats.
Bhagwant Mann became the new chief minister of Punjab where the AAP beat major players such as the Indian National Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.
It also hoped to replicate the same in the state of Gujarat at the end of 2022 and put up a major campaign but eventually failed to topple the BJP from power. However, its efforts did not go in vain as the AAP ended up fulfilling the Election Commission of India’s criteria to emerge a national party. However, AAP also had another electoral success and it was in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in December where it ended the BJP’s 15-year-long rule by winning 134 of 250 seats.
Modi’s BJP wins Gujarat but loses Himachal Pradesh
The BJP, which has been ruling the western state of Gujarat uninterruptedly since 1998, registered an emphatic victory in the elections held in December. Riding on a giant Narendra Modi wave, the saffron party won 156 out of 182 seats in the state. The PM also campaigned extensively in his home state and it was a big improvement over the party’s 2017 results when the opposition came dangerously close to challenging its majority. The BJP is now set to extend its rule in Gujarat for more than three decades, equalling the Left’s feat in the eastern state of West Bengal. However, the BJP lost the northern state of Himachal Pradesh which continued with its pattern of voting out the ruling party every five years. The Indian National Congress came back to power, getting a much needed boost at a time when its political fortunes have slumped.
Indian National Congress gets a new president
This is perhaps the biggest thing that happened for the Indian National Congress or the grand-old party of India. In an election held to choose its new president to succeed Sonia Gandhi, the party’s longest serving chief, Mallikarjun Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor in a lopsided contest to become the new president.
For Kharge, the challenges will be no less as rejuvenating the party which has been rocked by successive electoral debacles and dissent and resignation from some top leaders is not easy. But given the fact that it has been pushed to the limits by the rise of Modi, the Congress’s electing a new chief would at least convey a message to its supporters that it is ready to face the challenges and take them on.
Indian National Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’
Taking a cue from Mahatma Gandhi’s mass movements, the Indian National Congress’s current leadership decided to launch a pan-India movement to mobilise support at a time when the party has failed to match the appeal of PM Modi and his saffron BJP. Former party president Rahul Gandhi launched the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (Unite India March) from Kanyakumari in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in September in an effort to give succour and solace to an India allegedly divided by the ruling party on many grounds.
The BJP mocked both Gandhi and the march, mocking the Congress saying it was trying to relaunch Gandhi yet again. It also laughed off the opposition party’s march saying it should instead try to “jodo” (unite) itself. However, the march went on and has received a good response on the ground. A number of noted personalities have joined Gandhi as he has marched from south to north India.
The split in Shiv Sena
Founded more than five decades ago by Bal Thackeray, one of India’s most firebrand leaders, the Shiv Sena witnessed a sorry turn of events this year that eventually led to its split. In June, the Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) coalition government collapsed after a faction led by Sena leader Eknath Shinde revolted against the leadership of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, the son of the late Bal Thackeray.
Shinde succeeded Thackeray as the new chief minister of Maharashtra with the support of the opposition BJP. It was then when the matter of the party’s ownership went to the Supreme Court and eventually, the Shinde faction earned the name of Balasahebbanchi Shiv Sena while Thackeray’s loyalists came under the name of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). Neither of the two new outfits got the bow-and-arrow symbol of the original Sena.
Nitish Kumar takes yet another U-turn
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, one of the old war horses of Indian politics, took yet another U-turn in 2022 by dumping the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and returning to the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and joining hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal, a party he had alienated in 2017 to join hands with the BJP. He took oath as the CM of the eastern state for the eighth time.
The latest U-turn by the Janata Dal (United) leader came with less than two years to go before the next general elections. Tejashwi Yadav, son of former Bihar chief minister and Nitish’s old ally Lalu Prasad Yadav, became his deputy as he was in 2015-17. Nitish, 71, even said that Yadav will lead Bihar’s ruling coalition in the 2025 state elections, giving a hint that the RJD leader would be his political successor.
The death of Mulayam Singh Yadav
Indian politics saw the end of an era when Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of the Uttar Pradesh-based Samajwadi Party and the state’s three-time chief minister, died in Gurugram in Haryana in October at the age of 83. He had also served as India’s defence minister in the 2000s. Yadav was considered one of the tallest socialist politicians of India with his political career spanning more than six decades and his political legacy is now being carried forward by his son and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam had also served as the member of parliament for seven times and was popularly called “Netaji” (respected leader).
