Kamal Ghorui
The election schedule is tight this year. Will political parties also spend less on freebies?
The dates for India’s 2026 elections have been announced. Four big states and one Union Territory will vote between April 9 and April 29, and the results will be declared on May 4. These elections are interesting because they are the first ones after the new SIR voter list changes. Because of that, it is harder to guess how many votes each party might get. Even so, experts will still try to predict the results.
People will ask questions like: Can the Indian National Congress win back Assam? Can the Bharatiya Janata Party defeat the All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal? There will also be close attention on Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
In the last national election in 2024, Congress and BJP received almost the same share of votes in Assam. In Bengal, BJP also reduced the gap with the ruling party. Tamil Nadu may not change easily, but BJP hopes to become stronger there. In Kerala, the main fight is between the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front led by Congress.
In three of these states, the current governments have been in power for a long time. Assam and Kerala have had the same ruling groups for 10 years, and Mamata Banerjee has been in charge of Bengal for 15 years. When parties stay in power for a long time, they worry that voters might want change. So they often promise new benefits to attract voters.
For example, just hours before the election schedule was announced, the Bengal government increased payments given to priests and muezzins. Soon, parties may also promise direct cash payments to people. These kinds of promises could cost the country about ₹1.7 lakh crore this year.
The Reserve Bank of India and the government’s Economic Survey of India have warned that spending too much money on election promises can harm state finances. But political parties still keep making such promises.
For the BJP, the risk in these elections is smaller because it governs only one of the four states voting now. But it still wants to win more states. The pressure is greater on Congress, because it currently runs only three states on its own.
Another thing that could affect these elections is the Iran war, which has caused problems with gas supplies. If shortages continue, voters may blame someone, though it is hard to know which party will suffer politically.
The Election Commission must also watch out for violence during the elections. It is good that voting in Bengal will happen in two phases this time, instead of many phases like in earlier elections. This suggests the authorities feel confident about security. Still, there must not be a repeat of the post-election violence seen earlier in Bengal and other places.
In the end, voters deserve elections that are safe and fair.
END OF ARTICLE
