General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Indian Election of 2014 (informed ramblings) [View all]Joel thakkar
(363 posts)According to the exit poll, 10% Muslims have voted for BJP and 43% Muslims have voted for INC (Indian National Congress)...
Actually, 10% is the highest ever vote BJP has got from muslims and this is due to the fact that new muslim youth (18-23 yr old) have heavily voted BJP. They are not interested in past riots and more interested in BJP providing them jobs.
You Said - "The BJP won by a landslide even on Muslim Majority states, such as Jammu and Kashmir"
In Jammu and Kashmir, there is a seat called "Ladakh" which BJP won..just by 36 Votes..
Here is the result link : http://eciresults.ap.nic.in/ConstituencywiseS094.htm?ac=4
The peculiarity of this seat is that this seat voting population is about 48% Muslims and 47% Buddhist and only 5% Hindus...thus, 95% minorities and still BJP won.
Also, i think BJP is basically seen as Anti-Muslim Party and not Anti-Minority party due to the fact that Narendra Modi has repeatedly praised other minority religions like buddist, Jains, Sikhs etc and to some extend Christians are also supporting BJP who are religious minority in India.
Currently there is a BJP govt in the most liberal state of India - Goa - which has about 30% Christian Population. Most imp is the fact that this is a foreign tourist hub and locals are heavily liberal sided. BJP, being a right-wing party still has state govt and won all the seats from goa in this general election.
Now coming to caste factors.
BJP till now was opposing caste divisions and thus, caste reservation for civil posts too. Thus, BJP always got Upper Caste votes (as caste reservation put them in dis-advantage) and Lower Caste Votes always go to INC (Congress) party. Now, Lower Caste voter were also not happy with INC as this reservation was not much helping them and they were fed up with corruption and dynasty ruling.
Narendra Modi is from a lower caste and that changed all the equations. BJP got Upper caste votes and also Lower caste too as NaMo was from a lower caste and BJP also said that they will look for some welfare schemes for those who are poor in lower caste and they will also keep their main goal of uniting Hindus so that they are not divided extensively on the basis of caste.
I also find that BJP is a pro-women rights, pro-environment, pro-renewable energy etc...but they also have few conservative points..I will be replying in this thread about many of the Modi's Policies...