BJP
On April 3, the Bharatiya Janata Party put its formidable outreach network on an unusual election task: show Prime Minister Modi’s connect with Muslims.
The party’s social media accounts as well as media houses seen to be sympathetic towards the party pushed out an image of a skull-capped Muslim man leaning in and confiding in Modi as the prime minister listened intently, with one hand avuncularly on the man’s shoulder.
Under Modi, the BJP has largely encouraged religious polarisation given that its strategy has been to collect as much of the Hindu vote across castes, while taking it as a given that it would not get substantial Muslim support. However, as is clear from the Modi-Muslim man image, the BJP has been wary of pushing a hard polarisiation line during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
NEW DELHI: As India recorded more than 234,000 new Covid-19 infections last Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an election rally in the West Bengal town of Asansol and tweeted: “I’ve never seen such huge crowds.”
The second wave of the coronavirus has since grown into a tsunami. India is now the global coronavirus hotspot, setting records for the world’s highest number of daily cases. Images of hospitals overflowing with the sick and dying are flooding social media, as medical staff and the public alike make desperate appeals for oxygen supplies.
The political and financial capitals of New Delhi and Mumbai are in lockdown, with only the sound of ambulance sirens punctuating the quiet, but there’s a growing chorus of blame directed at Modi over his government’s handling of the pandemic.
updated: Apr 25 2021, 20:17 ist
By Archana Chaudhary, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Bibhudatta Pradhan
As India recorded more than 234,000 new Covid-19 infections last Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an election rally in the West Bengal town of Asansol and tweeted: “I’ve never seen such huge crowds.”
The second wave of the coronavirus has since grown into a tsunami. India is now the global coronavirus hotspot, setting records for the world’s highest number of daily cases. Images of hospitals overflowing with the sick and dying are flooding social media, as medical staff and the public alike make desperate appeals for oxygen supplies.
World s biggest Covid crisis brings Modi face to face with a real test
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World s biggest Covid crisis brings Modi face to face with a real testBy Archana Chaudhary, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Bibhudatta Pradhan, Bloomberg
Last Updated: Apr 25, 2021, 01:41 PM IST
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The second wave of the coronavirus has since grown into a tsunami. India is now the global coronavirus hotspot, setting records for the world’s highest number of daily cases. Images of hospitals overflowing with the sick and dying are flooding social media, as medical staff and the public alike make desperate appeals for oxygen supplies.
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Can Mamata Banerjee protect her formidable female votebank from getting splintered by Hindutva?
BJP had grown its women voters substantially in 2019. But it now faces hurdles in expanding it even further. 3 hours ago Pallabi Ghosh, who along with her husband runs a general store-cum-tea stall in the district of Hooghly, is a strong supporter of Mamata Banerjee due to the state government’s women-centric schemes. | Shoaib Daniyal
“You can call me a fan of Didi,” smiled Lokkhi Banerjee, 40, of Bishnupur town. “I was a fan in my father’s house. And I remain so in my husband’s house.”
Banerjee underlines that last bit since the rest of her husband’s family, like much of the town’s middle class, now leans towards the Bharatiya Janata Party. But she and her younger sister-in-law, Dolon, are Trinamool holdouts in the otherwise saffron Banerjee household. “We are in a democracy, right? We each can vote the way we like.”