How religion played a role in elections 2016

Victory has many gods and defeat has none. The state political landscape is pretty much unchanged after the Assembly election results. Didi-Amma are back and the BJP is on track. The analysis tells us that the Left has no steam in Bengal but too much fire in Kerala. BJP has made its presence felt and Congress has to rethink its strategy.

Finally everyone is remembering their gods in this time of joy and sorrow. God is a unifier and politicians have always used gods and goddesses to unify society and voters.

Also read: Muslim votes hold the key to Mamata returning to power in West Bengal

Didi may not be seen as Durga, but she used religion and faith in a proper manner to improve her mass base; her master's degree in Islamic study helped her a lot to reach out to a particular faith.

Mamata targets BJP for mixing religion with politics and knows how to handle religion with emotions.

Periyar wanted a casteless society, and AIADMK and DMK both know that caste is inseparable from their identity. Caste clearly means orthodox religious sentiments and practices. So you can see many caste-based parties cropping up regularly in Tamil Nadu, whether it is PMK, KMK, KMDK, or VCK.

But Amma knows what religion to target in the state, with AIADMK cadres choosing temples to distribute pamphlets for Amma. One youth brigade leader told the media, that "temple campaigns are very important". It means that god, indeed, listens.

Also read: 7 reasons Tamil Nadu voted for Jayalalithaa again

Kerala is "god's own country". However, it seems, god has favoured his/her critics this time. The Left win means that the BJP has no real Hindu base in this land of the faithful and the educated. Hindus, here, constitute 54.73 per cent against the nationwide percentage of 79.8 per cent.

Also, SNDP's (Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana) Vellapaly Nathan has not been able to prove his notion of "one god and one religion". SNDP never realised that religion, though dominant, is not the deciding factor of the electorate in Kerala.

Yet the BJP has reasons to cheer. They won Assam. RSS knows the state well and used the Bangladeshi issue to BJP's advantage. So the integrity of Hindus against the "imported Muslims" delivered results. The state is now politically divided along religioius lines. The future actions of the government need to prove how religiously secular they are.

Today India has many regional satraps who rule through social change, social acceptance and mass heroes. Women have a strong say and they rule ruthlessly. Their faith is not in the books of gods, but they know how to tap into the faithful, to win elections.