In the last couple of years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become a meaningful player in the new multipolar reality of the world.
India became one of the few members of the space club when it landed, for the first time, a probe on the Moon’s south pole.
He flexed his geopolitical muscles both at the BRICS Summit in South Africa, and also as the G20 host.
Then, both Canada and, lately, the US have accused the Indian state of being behind assassination plots against Sikh separatists, that New Delhi considers ‘terrorists’.
As a result, the recent state-level elections were seen as a test of Modi’s leadership.
Elections in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh states have frequently been described as the ‘semi-finals’ to the grand finale, which is the 2024 national election.
Modi’s ruling party ended up tightening its grip over India’s populous northern belt.
The New York Times reported:
“The results of voting for the governments of four states, with a cumulative population of more than 240 million people, were another blow to the dwindling fortunes of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress. The party, which ruled for a majority of India’s history as a republic, has struggled to claw its way back after Mr. Modi rose to national power in 2014.
The Congress party was hoping to use the state elections to build momentum for national elections next spring, but instead lost all three states in which it was pitted against Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.”
Modi’s B.J.P. party re-elected its government in Madhya Pradesh, with an even larger margin, and also toppled Congress Party candidates in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
“’When the Congress goes up against the formidable organizational and electoral machinery of the B.J.P., burnished by Prime Minister Modi’s charisma, it collapses’, Arati Jerath, a New Delhi-based political analyst, said about the opposition’s performance in the north. ‘This is the B.J.P.’s big advantage in 2024’.”
B.J.P. appears to be in a comfortable position ahead of the elections in the spring.
“Mr. Modi already has a big plan for further galvanizing his base of support: the inauguration in January of a massive Hindu temple in Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, that is being constructed on the site of a destroyed mosque. Demands for the construction of the temple helped turn Hindu nationalism into a major political movement in the 1990s and make the B.J.P. a national power.”
Analysts say that ideological clarity and charismatic national leadership helped Modi’s party.
“The B.J.P. stands clearly for Hindu nationalism and its divisive vision for turning India into a Hindu-first state. Mr. Modi, projecting himself as an ambitious champion of development as well as Hindu interests, also has a strong pull with voters across the country. His government has used the resources of the top-heavy and unequal Indian economy for well-targeted welfare schemes, handed out often in his name. In states where local B.J.P. leaders were struggling in the elections, it was Mr. Modi’s face on the posters; the handouts for voters were presented as ‘Modi’s guarantee’.”
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