As India heads towards the home run of its 18th General Election-with just the last of the seven phases to be held on June 1, the slogans, posturing, and promises held out by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) point to a shifting of what was till recently taken as solid electoral ground beneath the party’s feet. At this stage of the election, Arjun Appadurai, Professor Emeritus, Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, connects the dots between popular political discourse, the approach of the ruling party to governance, its furtherance of its ideological agenda in a plural India, and the manner in which it has read the electorate.

Pointing out that “the Indian elections are simply too big and too local for control by any dictator or party”, Prof. Appadurai postulates that religious agendas have a limiting reach in a country like India – rooted in locality and caste – and explains the context behind the constant and steep ratcheting up of the BJP’s calls for an India of its desire. The return of the party, and its leadership, to the pre-development sloganeering, he says, is reflective of its inability to move beyond its foundational ideological moorings.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance won a majority in Parliament for a third consecutive term after the results were declared for the 18th Lok Sabha elections on June 4, 2024. The BJP managed to win 240 seats, emerging as the single largest party. The opposition alliance, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) managed to cobble up 234 seats with the principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress, bagging 99 seats. The results for these elections can be accessed by clicking the link below.