India elections: The Modi juggernaut rolls on – how his Bharatiya Janata Party is dominating in state and national polls
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have swept the recently held state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Of the four big states that went to the polls, the party wrested Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress party while retaining Madhya Pradesh with an overwhelming majority.
The Congress party under the leadership of the Gandhis won the southern state of Telangana – a consolation as the party has no major state government in the north except for Himachal Pradesh.
These elections are significant as they are perceived as a precursor to the general election early next year.
Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party celebrate early election leads in Jaipur, India. Pic: AP
Barring the south and eastern part of the country, the BJP are now the dominant power across India – ruling 12 of the 28 states.
Mr Modi has been the face of the party throughout the campaigns – traversing the country championing development.
His appeal to the Hindu majority has also been a key attraction for voters.
BJP supporters carry a hoarding of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
But it has been the promise of well-targeted welfare schemes – with a more efficient delivery system to the last person in the chain – that has appealed to all.
And in particular, women voters, who form the large electoral catchment who are ardent supporters of Mr Modi.
Conventionally, people vote differently in state elections for regional-specific concerns while federal elections are fought over national issues.
But Mr Modi has turned that custom on its head.
Even in the presence or absence of state leaders, he’s the main campaigner with his face on posters, advertising hoardings and handouts.
The tagline this time being a “Modi guarantee” and a “double engine” governance at the state and federal level.
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Populist schemes have become a vital promise for political parties.
During his campaign, Mr Modi announced a scheme of providing 5kg of free grain a month (originally a COVID-era scheme) to 800 million people – about 53% of the country’s population for the next five years.
Various other programmes targeting women voters have been thrown into the mix.
These may help to win elections but will eventually become a burden on the state exchequer in the long run.
For a healthy democracy, opposition is a necessity. That element of a pan-India party is desperately missing.
The Congress under the leadership of the Gandhis has failed to provide a credible challenge to the Modi juggernaut.
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Opposition largely comes from state satraps who are mainly confined to their geographical limits.
Earlier this year an attempt was made by 28 opposition parties to come together as an alliance to take on the fight against Mr Modi, but internal rivalries prevented cooperation.
If the status quo stays in place the result of the 2024 general elections is a foregone conclusion and Mr Modi is all set for his third term.
He is undoubtedly India’s most popular politician – manifesting strong leadership with Hindu nationalism, a mix of asceticism, a public display of Hindutva, and a strong authority that can deliver welfare and development to a rising and aspiring nation.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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