E-Paper
2024 Key Events: Elections, Sports, and Space
2024 will see electoral battles of epochal proportions, sporting extravaganzas and a new space race.
The fifth year of the decade promises to be action-packed. We have a jam-packed election season, sporting extravaganzas, and numerous space missions to infinity and beyond.
Electoral Battles
2024 will see electoral battles of epochal proportions around the globe. The stage is set for the Indian General Election in 2024 in April-May followed by Assembly Elections in seven states: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand.
The 2024 Indian general election will see the Narendra Modi-led NDA – which is seeking a third-consecutive term – against the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance that consists of 27 parties including Indian National Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, All India Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samajwadi Party, Indian Union Muslim League, Communist Party of India, Aam Aadmi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal.
In the neighbourhood, Pakistan will also see a general election on February 8 with the main contestants being Gohar Ali Khan’s PTI (with former Pak PM Imran Khan in jail), Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N), and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s PPP. Meanwhile, former Pak PM Imran Khan, who is currently in jail and deemed ineligible to contest, has announced that he will fight elections from prison.
While we are on arrested former premiers, the United States of America is also set for a showdown between Republicans and Democrats in the 2024 US Presidential Election. The Democrats are likely to be led by President Joe Biden (with Kamala Harris as his running mate), Donald Trump seems likely to be the Republican nominee unless there are any legal hurdles.
Incidentally, if Trump does manage to win, he will become the second President of Grover Cleveland to achieve the feat of being POTUS in two non-consecutive terms.
Elections are also set to be held in Russia where pollsters aren’t particularly doubtful about the outcome and Vladimir Putin is expected to continue to be the head of state, a position he has held (as Prime Minister and President in varying terms) since 1999.
Sporting Extravaganzas
2024 will also see the return of the that should be more of an extravaganza compared to the Tokyo Summer Olympics which was held under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For football fans, the main event with the Euro 2024 in Germany that will see Italy try to defend their trophy. Cricket fans will also be waiting for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup that will see 20 teams participate for the first time.
Space Explorations
Finally, 2024 will also see a restart of the space race as NASA’s Artemis program seeks to return humans to the Moon.
Meanwhile, India’s ISRO will also see several missions including Ganganyaan-1 which will be the country’s first manned spaceflight program, Mangalyaan-2 that seeks to study Mars, and Shukrayaan-1 which seeks to find out about Venus.
