New Delhi: Days after the assembly poll results were announced, global media continues to analyse the elections in Indian states—particularly West Bengal and Tamil Nadu—to decode the complex political shifts shaping the country’s electoral landscape.
Tripti Lahiri and Krishna Pokharel write in The Wall Street Journal that voters in the bastions of two powerful regional political parties have ousted their rulers in state elections, providing a boost to “Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in what is being seen as an electoral earthquake”.
“Economic discontent often leads to ruling parties being unseated. But in India, that sentiment is working in favor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling party—for now,” they write.
According to the report, experts say that voters were driven by “economic frustrations over lack of jobs”. Additionally, complaints against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and MK Stalin’s DMK also worked against them.
“In Tamil Nadu, an industrialised southern state where most of Apple’s India-assembled iPhones are made, voters ousted a veteran party in favor of a popular movie star with a brand-new party who promised to create thousands of jobs and pay monthly stipends to unemployed graduates.”
In West Bengal, too, the “shift toward the BJP was driven by a sense that the state’s economic prospects had declined under firebrand leader Mamata.”
“The result in West Bengal, where the BJP has never won a statewide election before, marks an ideological homecoming for the party, given some of Hindu nationalism’s foundational thinkers hailed from the state.”
The report calls the BJP’s win in West Bengal a “reassuring boost” after the party lost its majority in 2024 for the first time in a decade. “Since then, the party has worked hard in the state polls that have followed, racking up wins in a string of states.”
There is an internal tussle within the Tata Trusts group about wether they should go public or not. P R Sanjai and Siddhi Nayak of the Bloomberg report that Noel Tata doesnt want to.
“Noel Tata’s opposition to taking his family empire’s parent firm public is creating discord atop one of India’s most storied conglomerates.”
The report says that two of the six trustees are set to propose that the group be listed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), but the Tata scion seems opposed to the idea.
Board members believe that public listing will bring necessary transparency and rigor to the conglomerate’s parent. “That’s a departure from the Trusts’ previous position of resisting a public float due to concerns that a listing would dilute its control over the group’s listed companies.”
The disagreements between the Tata scion and other board members come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India is tightening its control over non-banking financial companies and their public listing.
“This also illustrates the challenges that Noel, the scion and a great-grandson of the founder Jamsetji Tata, faces in solidifying his power over the group more than a year after he took over from his late half-brother.”
Dhaka Tribune writes about India warming up relations with Bangladesh following the election of the new government in the country. “After weathering a testing time in its relations with Bangladesh, India is now willing to engage with the new government in Bangladesh by gradually reactivating all the bilateral mechanisms, pursuing a relationship that keeps ‘people at the center’ of everything.”
“Bangladesh and India have over forty bilateral mechanisms including on water, trade, border management, and consular issues,” the report adds.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a visiting Bangladesh media delegation at the Ministry of External Affairs: “We weathered a testing time (Interim regime).”
“Bangladesh and India are scheduling a series of meetings in the coming weeks and months as they seek to re-engage following a period of strained relations during the interim government that took office after the fall of the Awami League administration on August 5, 2024.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: West Bengal win a boost for ‘expansionist Hindu-first politics’ of Modi’s BJP, writes global media