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Politics Yearender 2022: From BJP’s record win in Gujarat to splitsville in Maharashtra and Bihar, and a Bharat Jodo triumph
Let us take a look at the unexceptional political events that were witnessed in India in 2022

By Divyansh Thakur
With 2022 coming to an end, the Narendra Modi government has just one-and-a-half years left in its second term. That leaves hopes that 2023 will see heightened political activity with the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra coming up with better than expected public support.
The political sphere has been full of upheavals during the last one year. Many assembly elections and bypolls were held where the states witnessed changes in regime. Some regimes changed when a party either split or chose to swap partners, like in Maharashtra and Bihar, respectively.
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No surprises in spring Assembly results
In March, the election results of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur were out. The BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The Aam Aadmi Party wiped out the opposition in Punjab and formed its first government outside Delhi. By the end of the year, new governments were formed in two more states, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. While the BJP registered a record victory in Gujarat, the tradition of changing the ruling party remained intact in Himachal Pradesh, with the Congress putting up a strong showing.

All eyes were on Uttar Pradesh as people were expecting a change, but the results surprised everyone. Under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the BJP once again retained power in the state. The Congress’s strong pre-poll showing in Uttarakhand didn’t amount to much as Pushkar Singh Dhami returned as CM of a rampant BJP.
Mann to Mann in Punjab
The results of the Punjab Assembly elections were unexpected. The ruling Congress in Punjab had to face a humiliating defeat. The way in which the Aam Aadmi Party government was formed under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, the same result was seen in the Punjab elections.

The ruling Congress was brutally defeated here. The Aam Aadmi Party won 92 of the total 117 seats in the state and Bhagwant Mann was sworn in as Chief Minister. The Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal were left blinking in the AAP tsunami that smashed all regional and family loyalties in Punjab.
Security lapse during PM Modi’s Punjab visit
On January 5, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his Punjab tour when some farmer protesters blocked the road in Ferozepur on which the Prime Minister’s motorcade was to pass.

Because of this, the Prime Minister was stuck on a flyover for 20 minutes. The Prime Minister returned to Delhi after the incident. He neither attended any programme nor could he address his first rally in the state after two years. This was a major security lapse.
Historic victory of BJP in Gujarat, Congress in Himachal Pradesh

Results for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh were out in early December. The people of Himachal Pradesh voted out the ruling BJP and voted in the Congress with a majority. Some say the state alternates between the two parties in a long-standing custom.
In Gujarat, the BJP registered a historic victory by winning 157 of the 182 seats. This was the first time in the history of Gujarat that a political party has registered a huge victory.
Hijab: To wear or not to wear it
This controversy started from a government inter-college in Udupi, Karnataka. Muslim girl students were said to have violated a new government order mandating a dress code by wearing a hijab.

This saw many saffron organisations blockade Muslim institutions while the Muslim girls were no pushovers either. The case against this reached the High Court and the Supreme Court, the apex court returned a split verdict with one judge upholding the government mandate and the other supporting the right of Muslim girls to wear the hijab.
Nupur Sharma and the Prophet
Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokesperson, made a lot of headlines this year. She made a controversial comment on Prophet Muhammad during a TV debate leading to demonstrations against Nupur Sharma across the country.

Violence took place in many parts of the country. Later, Nupur Sharma had to resign due to this controversial statement and BJP suspended her from the party for 6 years.
Shiv Sena Split
Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was derailed mid-term by Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde and 28 party MLAs. They camped in Gujarat and then to Guwahati, hosted by Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Initially, the Thackeray faction tried to pacify them, but in the end the Shiv Sena split and Uddhav Thackeray was out of power. After this Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde formed his government with the support of the BJP. The legal battle between the two factions is still going on for the name and symbol of the party, which was one of the big surprises of 2022. The party had been cast in a monolith form by its founder Bal Thackeray, now split into factions though nephew Raj Thackeray had already struck out on his own in the patriarch’s lifetime.
Nitish glues up Mahagathbandhan again
Politics in Bihar lives true to the idiom which says 2 plus 2 need not be 4 all the time. The relations between the BJP and the JDU broke down and Nitish Kumar left the BJP and joined forces with old ally Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.

In a single move, Nitish took the oath of the post of CM again by dissolving the entire cabinet and forming a grand alliance, pushing his ally BJP to the opposition. In Nitish’s new cabinet, Tejashwi Yadav returned as Deputy CM and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav became a cabinet minister.
The unpopular front
The government banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) in September and arrested more than 100 active members. The organisation was banned for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities.

According to a notification issued by the Home Ministry, the Central Government was apprehensive that the PFI and its affiliates have been involved in destructive acts affecting public order, undermining the constitutional framework of the country and terror-based governance is being encouraged. Also trying to implement it. PFI was formed on November 22, 2006 in Kozhikode, Kerala.
Beating Nitish at his own game but this time in Manipur
In Manipur this year, the Janata Dal United, the party of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, suffered a severe blow.

Five JDU MLAs switched sides and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). K Meghjit Singh, Secretary of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, issued a statement in this regard. Significantly, JDU had won 6 of the 38 seats in the Assembly elections held in March this year.
A non-Gandhi Congress chief
2022’s signal achievement for the Congress was an open election for its president. Mallikarjun Kharge became the first non-Gandhi president of the party after 24 years and after Sitaram Kesri.

Mallikarjun Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor by a huge margin. Kharge got a total 7,897 votes while Shashi Tharoor won 1,072 votes. Many will dispute how Kharge, a Gandhi family loyalist, can be seen as an independent leader. Kharge’s newfound enthusiasm was seen in the Gujarat campaign where his quote on Ravan was misrepresented to the people by the BJP and ended up nearly decimating the Congress performance there.
Bharat Jodo Yatra
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra made a lot of headlines this year. Initially dismissed by both the media and the BJP, the increasing numbers joining the yatra made both of them sit up and take note. Such a padayatra is taking place in Indian politics after a long time. This journey started from Kanyakumari on September 7, 2022. Covering a distance of 3,570 km in 150 days, the journey will end in Srinagar.
Opposition unity which will be needed for the 2024 campaign was fractious when the yatra wound its way through Kerala. The CPI(M) which runs the Kerala government was quick to point out the yatra was not taking UP and Gujarat seriously and was hurting Opposition unity by hurting the CPI(M). But the yatra persevered, Rahul Gandhi grew a longish beard a la Forrest Gump but unlike Forrest, the man’s resolve grew with each step. Snaking through the South, the Vindhyas and into the Hindi belt to a grand entry into Delhi. But like Nizamuddin Auliya’s message to Muhammad bin Tughlaq: Hanuz Dilli Dur Ast. The yatra’s fine and grand, but votes will tilt the scales in 2024.
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Revanth Reddy to be next Telangana Chief Minister, swearing-in on December 7
Reddy has been credited for the Congress party’s thumping victory in the Telangana state elections. He was the face of the Congress’s winning campaign.

The Congress party announced Telangana Congress Chief Revanth Reddy will be the next chief minister of the state on Tuesday. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said the swearing in ceremony is going to take place on December 7. The Congress party did not reveal whether there will be one or more deputy chief ministers and what role senior leaders from Telangana will have in the government.
Reddy has been credited for the Congress party’s thumping victory in the Telangana state elections. He was the face of the Congress’s winning campaign. Revanth Reddy is a Lok Sabha MP and a two time MLA. He represented the assembly of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2009 and later in Telangana assembly in 2014.
Reddy started his political career with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS. In 2007 he was elected as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) as an independent candidate. Later Reddy joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Kodangal constituency in 2009.
He quit the party after he found involved in an alledged bribing scandal. He joined the Congress party in 2017 and was appointed as the TPCC chief in 2021. The 54 year old leader earned many critics within the party ranks after he changed the style of functioning as a state Congress chief.
He was projected as a big stage leader and addressed many high ticket rallies in the campaigning for the assembly elections. Reddy is known to take on KCR and his family in his speeches and interviews. In a historic win the Congress party defeated the K Chandrasekhar Rao led (BRS) government as it crossed the majority mark by winning 64 seats in Telangana. The BRS trailed with 38 seats, while the BJP improved its 2018 tally by winning eight seats. The AIMIM won 7 seats, while the CPI could manage only one seat.
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Analysis: Bhupesh Baghel is the sole reason for Congress loss
Bhupesh Baghel ran an administration devoid of any human touch, principles or planning, rough shodding his way over every opposition within and outside based on a massive mandate obtained in 2018 which he appropriated as his own doing.

By Neeraj Mishra
In the end, the voter understood Bhupesh Baghel’s duplicity better than us, observers, reporters and analysts. Baghel’s alms to the farmers in four instalments every year was aimed as a cover-up for his massive corruption and coercive ways. He ran an administration devoid of any human touch, principles or planning, rough shodding his way over every opposition within and outside based on a massive mandate obtained in 2018 which he appropriated as his own doing.
His discarded, embarrassed teammates grinned and bore it. Those who joined his gang (not government) prospered but have all been put to sleep by the electorate enraged at a pretentious “son of the soil” who allegedly wanted a cut in everything from Mahadev App, Excise sales, Mining to officer postings.
Baghel’s assumption that since he had fed the farmers an extra Rs 500, paid for their cow dung, and sweet-talked them about chhattisgariya pride, he had achieved an invincible position. His boasts of 75-plus seats reminded everyone of the last Congress chief minister Ajit Jogi, who had similar pretensions.
At least, Jogi worked hard and with a purpose. Incidentally, Baghel was a minister in his cabinet, foisted on him by a previous arrangement with Digvijaya Singh that his Madhya Pradesh cabinet members would be retained, always called Baghel a “ganda aadmi” (dirty man). This personal rivalry led Baghel to cancel the entire Jogi family’s ST certificate once in power, which in the end has left the beleaguered party with no national-level leadership among the tribals. He similarly chucked out his one-time benefactor Arvind Netam from the party.
Kakka means home breaker
In all family feuds over property, it’s usually the kakka (younger uncle) and his sons who ruin a family’s peace. Bhupesh, who coined the epithet Kakka for himself, and was fond of saying Kakka abhi Zinda hai, managed to drive a wedge in the Gandhi household itself.
He refused to abdicate when Rahul Gandhi asked him following his promise of 2.5 years to TS Singhdeo as CM. He instead clung on to Priyanka with unconcealed flattery who became his saviour. He even welcomed her with rose petals covering her one km path during the AICC session in Raipur in February earlier this year.
He was made in charge of Assam and Uttar Pradesh elections and Raman Singh alleged that he was Priyanka’s ATM. Many Congressmen close to Baghel even joke that he pays Priyanka’s EMI. Jokes apart, Baghel did manage to annoy Rahul and Sonia with his Priyanka shield.
ED cases in Chhattisgarh
Two IAS officers, who joined the Baghel gang, are in jail. His closest aides are incarcerated and several more have been identified by the BJP and are likely to face the music in coming days. The Congress lost 17 SC/ST seats paving the way for the BJP to grab them back. The BJP which had only 3 seats out of 39 reserved seats, now has 21. This is where the battle was lost.
Baghel’s running battle with tribal PCC president Markam and foisting of his dummy Deepak Baij just ahead of elections ended in loss for both tribal leaders.
OBC hoax
Baghel pulled wool over the eyes of the Gandhis by projecting himself as an OBC leader. The learned Gandhi siblings, of course, don’t know what or who is an OBC or whether it can be treated as a block. The BJP called his hoax of Kurmi leadership and separated the Sahus from the OBC stack.
Result, a labourer from Bemetara, Ishwar Sahu was given the ticket in Saja seat and he defeated the loathsome figure of Ravindra Chaubey, who was Baghel’s closest ally along with Mohammad Akbar in the cabinet. Both lost by margins of over 40,000 votes. It only means the voter was watching and registering everything.
Opportunity
Baghel was a leader from Durg district who clung onto bigger names like Vasudev Chandrakar and Khubchand Baghel because of his Kurmi caste. He was given the transport portfolio by Digvijaya Singh in undivided Madhya Pradesh but the department was run directly by him. He got his opportunity in Chhattisgarh because of the tragic incident of Jeeram Valley when the Naxalites shot down the entire senior leadership of Congress, from VC Shukla, Nand Kumar Patel to Mahendra Karma. Baghel and TS Singhdeo prospered because the last of the senior leaders like Satyanarain Sharma and Charandas Mahant had been sidelined by Ajit Jogi. Baghel was smart enough to then push Jogi out of the Congress once he became PCC president in 2014.
Government
In saddle, Baghel created a fear psychosis among bureaucrats. His first target as CM were Principal Secretary to Raman Singh, Aman Singh and his EOW chief Mukesh Gupta. He suspended and then terminated Gupta, filed cases against Aman Singh and Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh. Later, he posted pliable officers in EOW to threaten and coerce senior bureaucrats.
One of them was ADGP GP Singh, who was raided by his own EOW department, and later forced to retire. Journalists were threatened and raided, arrested and even their houses bulldozed. One of them, an ex-Aaj Tak reporter, is now behind bars with an NDPS case slapped on him because he dared to question bureaucrats close to Baghel.
If anything, Baghel’s five-year reign has proved that one needs good people and officers to run a government. He had none. Not even one. There were two people from the districts, one ex-cartoonist from a local newspaper accused of making and distributing sex CDs, one pretentious socialist-turned Congressi local editor crowned by an SDM level officer with a motor mouth.
She is now cooling her heels in ED custody but when she ran the show, abusing IAS officers was her favourite pastime. This priceless team put together a policy called-Narwa, Ghurwa, Badi—which they thought was a brilliant idea to change the lives of villagers. It didn’t change anything but culminated in the only creditable policy of Baghel sarkar in Rajiv Gandhi bonus of Rs 500 per quintal for the farmers.
But the lot enjoyed unbridled power with novice district collectors dancing to their tune and everyone from Patwari and Hawaldar to Chief Secretary to DGP collecting and paying cuts. At least that’s what the ED teams found. Those cases are now likely to gain speed.
The Dhebar chapter
The Dhebar family from Raipur became his strongest ally. It is believed they also became his book keepers. He managed to install Aijaz Dhebar as Mayor of Raipur through clever manipulation of indirect voting. In a direct vote, Aijaz, a one-time NSUI president, who would possibly have remained a corporator from a Muslim locality all his life.
This emboldened the Dhebars and they are accused of swindling the state exchequer of Rs 2000 crore by the ED. Aijaz’s elder brother was incarcerated for a year and is now out on bail but the ED cases are still on. The Congress’ wipe-out from all seven seats in Raipur district is credited to Dhebars uncontrolled loot of public funds and land. Again the electorate was watching and registering everything.
Women’s vote
If one were to pin Baghel on one single reason for the Congress’ devastating loss, it would be how he cheated women voters. It’s not the promises or enticement by the BJP, it’s the fraud perpetrated on them by Baghel that riled women voters, who outnumber male voters overall in the state.
What was the fraud? Baghel and Singhdeo had promised Prohibition as soon as they came to power but instead the whole excise department became a milch cow. The excise revenue rose from Rs 4000 crore in 2018 to Rs 8000 crore in 2022-23. An equal amount is believed to have been made illegally and shared by many every year.
It had become so bad that during the Covid years, liquor was delivered to the doorstep by government vehicles. An entire generation has been ruined by this senselessness and women folk noted this with venom in their heart against the perpetrators as they watched their homes and men folk going to waste.
Scams
There is an endless list of scams from the latest Mahadev App betting racket to coal mafia, sand mafia, mining mafia, transport mafia, PSC appointments scam, teachers recruitment scam, police promotion scam to transfer and posting deals.
All this could have been taken up by the BJP on a warfooting during elections and there were questions raised over their leaders’ intentions when it was not done over the past five years. But eventually they relied on the undercurrent of anger among women and the duplicitous nature of Bhupesh ka Bharosa to see them through.
India News
INDIA bloc meeting scheduled for tomorrow, postponed due to the absence of key leaders
Congress, after consulting stakeholders, is reportedly going to attempt to reschedule the meeting for two weeks later.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin decided not to attend the Opposition INDIA bloc meeting, which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Congress sources said that the chief minister of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin, would not be able to attend the meeting because of Cyclone Michaung, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav had hinted that she had previous engagements, Nitish Kumar was ill, and Chennai airport was closed.
Given the circumstances, the meeting has been cancelled, they declared. Congress, after consulting stakeholders, is reportedly going to attempt to reschedule the meeting for two weeks later.
The chief of the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), allegedly agreed to attend the conference but subsequently changed his mind and cancelled his plane tickets.
They said that the Aam Aadmi Party had not yet sent a confirmation.
The next meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners was set by the Congress for Wednesday, December 6, in New Delhi. On Sunday morning, the BJP defeated the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and it also passed the halfway point in Rajasthan.
The Congress has to rework its plan for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after losing 3-1 to the BJP on Sunday, nearly destroying the party in the Hindi heartland.
With the exception of Himachal Pradesh in the north, the party was soundly defeated in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. It is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in an alliance with regional parties, and it only rules three states by itself.
The Indian National Congress is the leader of the coalition of large-scale political parties known as INDIA. It was established to challenge the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It was created in July 2023 in Bengaluru during a gathering of opposition parties.
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