These past few months have been extremely important for Indians, as the world’s largest general election took place in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024. Nearly one billion people were eligible to cast their votes, creating the difficult task of administering a huge election in a country where poverty remains an increasing problem.
The most popular contender of this election was Narendra Modi, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. Modi was victorious, becoming Prime Minister of India for a third time, but his win, perhaps, wasn’t in the way he had expected.
Opinion polls before the voting results, announced on 4 June, predicted a win for Modi’s BJP and its allies. Modi is seen as a strong leader for India; a nationalist who engages in rhetoric that gives the ordinary Indian pride in the trajectory of the nation. Modi’s successes during his previous two terms as Prime Minister have allowed him to gain support from the majority of his country. Infrastructure, for example, has improved dramatically, with more than half the population being connected to the internet under BJP’s government. Programs to improve access to basic needs like toilets and tap water were also launched by the BJP. For example, through the Har Ghar Jal scheme the number of rural households with tap water jumped from around 16 percent to 72 percent between 2019 and 2022.
Possibly Modi’s most loved feature, however, has been his nationalism. Modi’s party provides a compelling vision for India, which the opposition parties in the 2024 elections could not compete against. Whilst the Congress Party, one of BJP’s oppositions, focused more on the redistribution of wealth, BJP put an emphasis on manufacturing, infrastructure, and nationalism. Modi and his party envision India as a world-class leader in the economic, scientific, and military realms; why would the people deny a leader that wants his country to be the best?
This year’s elections took place in seven phases. More than two dozen opposition parties, including the Congress, formed a coalition bloc – called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) – to take on the BJP. Voting was staggered, beginning on 19 April and ending on 1 June.
Despite winning the most seats for a third consecutive time, Modi and his BJP were unsuccessful in reaching the majority of seats required to form the next government. After India’s 640 million votes were counted following a six-week-long election, BJP won 240 seats, falling short of the 272-mark that is needed in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, which has 543 seats in total. A sharp decline was seen in the number of seats BJP won this year compared to the elections in 2019. INDIA, the opposition alliance led by Rahul Gandhi’s Indian National Congress (INC) party, won 232 seats, with the Congress winning 99 of those. This was an increase from 2019, when the Congress won only 52 seats, and with its allies, 91 constituencies.
Modi’s party was forced to form a coalition government with their allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in order to claim victory in the elections.
The results were a humbling realisation for Modi, as polls had suggested he would sweep this year’s election. Instead he witnessed a decline in the number of seats his party won.
Modi has a lot of areas to work on if he wants to achieve his desire of seeing India as a developed nation by 2047. Unemployment is currently one of the biggest problems India is facing, with a mismatch in skills further exacerbating the issue. Modi must also continue to focus on manufacturing, as he is pushing for India to be self-reliant and overtake China to become Asia’s largest manufacturing powerhouse, especially in chip manufacturing.
Although being popular amongst many Indians, some of Modi’s ideologies could cost him greatly as he tries to maintain support after the unexpected turnout of this year’s general election. Religion is a factor in every Indian election. In January this year, Modi inaugurated a grand temple in the city of Ayodhya, saying it heralded a "new era" for the country. The temple replaced a 16th-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots. It was expected to give Modi’s party a boost during the election, however, the BJP candidate lost their seat in the city of Ayodhya; it seems Modi’s action did not have the desired effect. Modi has proudly displayed his views surrounding the superiority of Hindus, his 10 years in office being marked by a fierce hostility towards India's ethnic and religious minorities.
Since his rise to power in 2014, Modi has encouraged a Hindu nationalist vision, leaving more than 204 million Muslims in India subjected to persecution and discrimination by the society and the state. Over the past decade, in many BJP-ruled states, thousands of Muslim houses and shops were demolished by bulldozers after their owners allegedly committed minor crimes. In several campaign rallies, Modi addressed muslims as ‘infiltrators’ and ‘those who have more children’. This is not, unfortunately, the first time Modi has expressed his negative views about minority groups in India.
It is believed that a bigger Modi victory would have given the ruling party an even greater political mandate to pursue Islamophobic policies. It is hoped that by needing to form a coalition government, Modi will understand that the blatant Islamophobia may not be working in his favour anymore. There is lots Modi must do to ensure his support doesn’t decline even further.