Resurgent Modi Paves Way to Keep Power in India Well Beyond 2030
An analysis of voting trends shows India’s leader is seeing success at uniting the Hindu majority.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, waves to supporters at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in New Delhi on May 4.
Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty ImagesIn India’s sweltering summer of 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stumble in a national election signaled that his decade-long rule might be coming to an end. Now he appears poised to keep power well into the next decade.
Modi’s breakthrough victory last week in a West Bengal election, as well as losses for incumbents in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, left his opponents in tatters and extended the reach of his Bharatiya Janata Party beyond its northern strongholds. A Bloomberg analysis of voting patterns shows Modi, 75, is seeing success with a playbook aimed at restoring the BJP’s parliamentary majority during a national vote due by mid-2029, which would position him to become India’s longest-serving leader.