INDIA votes for legislatures to several states, two of which have connections to Guyanese. The state of Tamil Nadu, from which our Madrassi indentured immigrants originate, and West Bengal, from where most indentured labourers, boarded the ship bound for Guyana, are expected to have political change when the voting and tabulation of ballots are completed next month. I travel to India regularly and monitor its political developments.  In the US and Canada, most Indo-Guyanese subscribe to Indian TV channels beaming live from India and follow-up on events in their ancestral homeland.

When I was in India, conversations with voters in several states revealed they were fed-up with incumbents throughout India and would vote them out, the lone exception being in Bihar, another state to  which large numbers of Guyanese trace their roots.

The state of Uttar Pradesh(UP),to which most Guyanese trace their roots, including this writer, will go to the polls next year and the incumbent Mayawati government is expected to lose badly because of poor governance.

In Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been a model for good governance and voters increased his parliamentary majority in last year’s elections.  In UP, voters can’t wait to get rid of Mayawati.

In West Bengal, of which Calcutta (Kolkota) is the capital, the communists, who have been governing uninterrupted since 1977, are projected to lose power.  Voters say the communists are holding back the development of the state. Opinion polls show another woman, Mamta Banerjee, ahead of incumbent rival Buddhadeb Bhattacharya by a huge margin in popularity for Chief Minister.  But the margin in terms of vote difference between the two coalitions they lead (Trinamool versus Left) is small. Because of the first-past-the-post electoral system, the Trinamool is projected to win more seats and form the government in partnership with the Congress Party.

Corruption scandals involving the Congress will hurt the party but the partnership will prevail ousting the Left.  In Kerala, another state under the control of the Left, the Communists/Socialists are also expected to lose power because voters feel their rigid policies are hurting development and not attracting investments to create jobs or spur growth. They have failed to keep up with the changing times.

In Tamil Nadu, of which Madras (Chennai) is the capital, another female is expected to become Chief Minister next week. Jayalalitha of the opposition AIADMK-led coalition is projected to trounce the incumbent Chief Minister Karunanidhi.  The ruling DMK-Congress led coalition has been tainted by massive corruption.  Voters told me they wanted change.  It would take a miracle for Karun to survive. Polls indicate that voters prefer Jaya over Karun for the post of Chief Minister.  The opinion polls also project a majority of seats for the opposition, which is in line with the thinking of myself and other political analysts of Indian elections.  A few other states are also due to hold elections in which the voters have opined they want political change.