Modi’s domination of Indian politics continues
5 July 2024
After 44 days of voting involving an electorate of 970 million, India’s general election has finally reached its conclusion. Gaining 240 seats out of a possible 543, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has again beaten his political opponents. For Modi, this is a third consecutive victory for his Hindu nationalist supporters, who will continue to govern India through their wider National Democratic Alliance coalition. Such a record has only been achieved by one other Indian Prime Minister - the country’s founding father Jawaharlal Nehru.
Generation Modi
Central to the BJP’s electoral success has been Modi’s highly charismatic persona. Talismanic, if divisive in some quarters concerning the BJP’s attitude towards India’s Muslim minority, as India’s Prime Minister Modi has maintained exceptionally high approval ratings across his two previous periods in office. For 10 years, these did not drop below 64% and peaked at 93.5%.
Modi’s personal popularity highlights how the BJP has again defied the incumbency effect, whereby most leaders in democratic elections lose voters after gaining power. Instead, even though the BJP did not gain a majority as in previous elections in 2019 (303 seats and 37% of votes) and 2014 (282 seats and 31% of votes), they maintained their vote-base at 37%. Such consistent success was thought to be virtually impossible for a Hindu-dominated party to achieve, especially in a highly ethnically diverse and political complex country such as India.
A pro-capitalist, pro-market, and populist embrace, backed up by the agile use of social media technology and donations from big business are also vital pillars of Modi’s political succour. Each have been vital to the image of a new, richer, returning great power, helping the BJP and Modi to further extend their grip on power. The party’s well-established Hindutva (Hindu-orientated) values have also become the main influence upon India’s domestic and foreign policies. As such, the BJP are now indisputably the centrifugal force of Indian politics and for a generation of Indians, they will only have known their country under Modi’s leadership.
Towards a Hindutva India
Internal political developments reflect the assertion of these Hindutva values. These include the removal in 2019 of Article 370 from the Constitution that revoked the special status of Kashmir or Modi’s personal dedication of the Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in 2024, which replaced a mosque of the site. Both actions were long standing manifesto promises, with the BJP claiming that the latter “has rejuvenated our society, … (leading to) a new interest in our history and heritage”. They also inform nationalist discourses of a rapidly resurgent India