Violent incidents over Citizenship Amendment Act may polarise votes in Assembly polls

NEW DELHI: Political pundits believe that violent incidents over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) may hamper the upcoming Assembly elections in the country.

Experts believe that the Act has bifurcated the maximum population in the country. One fraction is vociferously supporting this Act while other is fiercely opposing it. The CAA is a face-off between the people. This situation may cause the polarisation of votes in the ongoing Jharkhand Assembly polls as well as in upcoming Delhi and West Bengal polls. Moreover, the political parties are very well aware of it, hence, they are blaming each other for the situation.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday said in a tweet that the CAB (Citizenship (Amendment) Bill) and NRC (National Register of Citizens) are weapons of mass polarisation while BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra attacked the Opposition in a press conference blaming the appeasement of votes behind the violence.

Patra said: “At one hand, there are people like (Asaduddin) Owaisi and (AAP leader) Amanatullah Khan who are conspiring to divide the country like (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah did and at the other hand, Mamata Banerjee too is doing a politics of castes and religion in West Bengal. Actually, these parties are doing appeasement for votes for a particular community”.

Political expert Ratanmani Lal said: “If violent incidents take place in any State just before the elections then it surely affects the polls”.

He said: “Religious and sentimental disputes cause polarisation of people. The public opinion divides either in support or opposition on a single issue leaving others aside. This is obvious that the fraction supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act will go with the BJP and the other one may go with the opposition. This kind of situation is always in favour of political parties”.

“Minorities’ votes are vital in the West Bengal Assembly elections, the polarisation may be in favour of the BJP there. But, the violent incident in Delhi may work adversely for the BJP because the Delhi Police comes under the Central government. Hence, the Centre is accountable for the violence, means it won’t be able to attack the State government the way it can do in West Bengal”. (IANS)

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