The party retaining power in four of five states makes PM Narendra Modi’s task of returning to power easier in 2024

Indian voters have once again reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindutva politics in the latest provincial polls held in five states.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in the north that sends 80 lawmakers to the lower house of India’s parliament.

It also captured power in neighboring Uttarakhand, known as the Devbhumi or land of Hindu gods, along with Manipur in the northeast and Goa on the west coast with sizable Christian populations.

But the renewed mandate in four of the five states has clearly made Modi’s task of returning to power in the 2024 general election look easier.

Uttar Pradesh returned the Hindu monk-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath, who is the reigning chief minister of the state and is seen as a possible future successor to Modi on the national stage.

“The latest victory is likely to help the BJP forge ahead with its controversial agenda, including implementing a citizenship law that excluded Muslims from its ambit”

The Yogi is more vocal about his Hindutva ideology, a combination of unabashed invocation and celebration of majoritarian religious identity.

But the PM preferred to tone down the ideology in his victory speech, saying the results “strongly vindicate BJP’s pro-poor and pro-active governance.”

Indian Muslims, though, began to worry as election results began pouring in on March 10. Many traders in national capital New Delhi expressed their apprehensions of a rise in hate speech and attacks on them in the name of religion.

“The latest victory is likely to help the BJP forge ahead with its controversial agenda, including implementing a citizenship law that excluded Muslims from its ambit and had been pushed to the back burner after nationwide protests,” said an article published by The Washington Post.

BJP leaders denied the pro-Hindu rhetoric was the only factor behind the victory. “Please do not underestimate our inclusive development agenda,” said Virendra Sachdeva, a member of the ruling party’s good governance cell.

Speaking to UCA News, Sachdeva said the media always highlighted the minorities’ fear and disappointment with the BJP but failed to appreciate that Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh and Christian voters in Goa and Manipur had voted in favor of the party.

Pramod Pandey, a voter in Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh, said the opposition campaign went haywire when it started attacking Modi and Yogi personally. “The socialist leaders of the Samajwadi Party claimed no progress was achieved under BJP. But such campaigns did not go down well with voters,” he added.

BJP leader Rita Bahuguna-Joshi said the public mood was in favor of development. “This is a win for the ‘Modi-Yogi double engine’ government. People voted for security and development infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh,” she claimed.

Still, there is no denying that the BJP reaped a rich electoral harvest by implementing two of its major electoral promises — starting construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya and revocation of special status granted to the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region.

“The Congress was expected to wrest power from the BJP in Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand but failed miserably and ended up losing power in Punjab”

As noted by US-based Freedom House, the Modi government and his Hindu nationalist party have “presided over discriminatory policies and increased violence affecting the Muslim population” leading to a decline in civil liberties in India.

The latest report by the Swedish V-Dem Institute stated that India was among the top 10 countries sliding into authoritarianism.

The BJP’s continued electoral successes since 2014 have led to the increased marginalization of the Congress, which ruled India for about six decades since its independence in 1947.

The Congress was expected to wrest power from the BJP in Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand but failed miserably and ended up losing power in Punjab.

While still grappling with how to take on Modi’s electoral might, the oldest political formation in India has ended up on the losing side in nine of the 10 state assembly elections held over the past two years.

The Congress has now been reduced to ruling just two states on its own. Its continued marginalization has left many party stalwarts wary of their future prospects.

Lawmaker and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor underlined the need to reform the party’s organizational leadership. “One thing is clear — change is unavoidable if we need to succeed,” he tweeted.

With the Congress left high and dry, it is now left to the multiple regional parties to take on Modi and his party at the 2024 hustings.

* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.