 Summary of this article
- While women voters outnumbered men, at the heart of the ‘mahila’ wave were targeted welfare schemes—from Rs 10,000 cash deposits under Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana to the Jeevika Didi scheme.
- Rahul Gandhi raised a very important issue of vote chori, which got some traction, but he did not follow up and went missing for a whole month just before the elections.
- Bihar election was fought with no narrative or vision and the outcome, so overwhelmingly one-sided, has stumped political parties, voters and psephologists.
In the recent past, election outcomes, not just in India but across the world, have been so unpredictable and unforeseeable that political scientists have failed to comprehend or explain the electoral trends. The recently concluded Bihar election was no different—it was an election that was fought with no narrative or vision and the outcome, so overwhelmingly one-sided, has stumped political parties, voters as well as psephologists. |
