What do the polls say?

The political arena in India is very complex with thousands of candidates and hundreds of parties trying to form coalitions that cross the differences between caste, religions and languages. Even pollsters in the country find it hard to understand what is happening before the elections, and few have been able to accurately predict the outcome of the last three elections.בחודש דצמבר, מפלגתו של

Moody lost one day in the elections in three countries. Surveys conducted in the first two months of 2019 showed that the ruling party is losing seats and also its majority in parliament, although it remains the largest party in the House of Representatives. But in the past month, since Indian warplanes crossed the border and attacked Pakistan, public support for Moody and his party has increased. Three polls conducted in March showed that the prime minister wins by a small majority, but quite a few commentators treat the polls with suspicion.

What are the main issues in the elections?

The issues that concern India's 1.3 billion citizens vary from district to district, and each candidate's campaign directs its messages to the local electorate. The Hindu-nationalist ruling party, for example, has promised to stop the slaughter of cows in an area where most of its inhabitants are Hindus. At the same time, however, she promised to improve the quality of beef in a predominantly Christian area.

Other issues at the top of the agenda are: assistance to farmers, creation of new jobs, national security (especially in view of the recent confrontation with Pakistan), religion and independence of government institutions.

 

Article: Before the Indian elections, Moody became the world's largest religious festival for an election campaign

New York Times

Once every six years, tens of millions of Hindus flock to the city of Praiagraj in northern India to participate in the sacred baptism of the Ganges River. The festival, named Kumba Mela, is considered the largest gathering of crowds on earth. To the delight and delight of Indian Prime Minister Nranda Moody, this year the festival clashes with the country's general elections.

 To please the voters and divert attention from the country's problems, Moody and his allies became the largest and most expensive event in the history of India. In the weeks leading up to the festival, on January 15, it was almost impossible to walk 20 paces without encountering posters bearing the images of Moody and his closest ally, Yogi Adityanat, the Prime Minister of the State of Uttar The Modi'in-Hindu National Coalition collaborated with Adityan, and together they approved infrastructure works totaling $ 600 million and included nine interchanges, 22 bridges, 240 km of roads, 20,000 garbage cans, 40,000 light bulbs, 122,500 service cells and a new passenger terminal at the airport, Moody hopes that this line of innovations will convince voters of its effectiveness in the run-up to the April or May elections and forget the rising unemployment figures.

The main beneficiaries are the Hindus. A good example of this is the temporary closure of polluting tanning plants scattered along the Ganges - factories belonging to the Muslim minority in India and the lower castes - under Adityan's orders. Despite appeals to the courts, the factories remained closed, and while tens of millions of Hindus celebrated, millions of Muslims and the lower castes remained unemployed. "It was deliberately done to hurt some of the population," said Taj Alam, vice president of the Leather Manufacturers Association in Uttar Pradesh.

Adityan dominates India's most populous country, home to 230 million people. He is considered one of the leading politicians in India, two for Moody. He adheres to discipline, and according to festival visitors, this year the order and cleanliness were strictly observed, and the festivities were well organized. Traffic flows, there are no beggars, and the trash is not piled up. On the banks of the river, wardrobes were set up, so that pilgrims, especially women, would have little privacy.

Opposition leaders are furious at the conduct of Modi and Adityan. According to them, the state is not supposed to assist members of a particular religion at the expense of other religions. "This is a secular state and it has to stay," said a spokesman for the Bijan Samaj party. "Why do they spend taxpayer money that way?"

This year's festival, which began in January and will continue until the beginning of March, is not considered a complete combo - but for half a comba. The "half-kumba" tradition began years ago, when religious saints used to meet once every six years, in a kind of mid-point between the full festivals. A few months ago, however, Adityan declared that there is nothing in Hinduism that is not complete, and that the word "half" does not fit the philosophy of religion. That's why he decided that half of the combo this year would be a full komba, and he spent three times as much as the last full kombah that was celebrated in 2013.

The main thing at the festival is baptism, and Hindus believe that the best location for this will be at the point where the Ganges is united with two rivers, the Saraswati and the Yumuna. The problem is that it is easier to talk about baptism than to apply it. It is almost impossible to spread in a density that leaves only a few inches between one person and another when there is no place to lay the personal effects, all with a crowd of one million people being pushed behind.

Desvanti Patel, a peasant from a village two hours away, arrived at the festivities in a trailer towed by a tractor. She was amazed by the glittering sets, the dazzling lights and the video posters that glowed everywhere. "They did not even spend a fraction of that money in our area," Patel said. "We live in a village, in a house built of straw and mud." In the last elections, Patel pointed to Moody. When asked if she would do so again in the upcoming elections, she thought for a moment and answered, "Let's wait and see."