Modi’s Greatest Strength Is His Foes’ Weakness
India’s opposition remains competitive in elections that don’t turn on his personal appeal. But to win at the national level it needs a unified message.
More popular than his party.
Photographer: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg
The results from four state elections in India announced last weekend might appear dispiriting for India’s opposition: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party swept all three states in India’s north. While the opposition Congress party dislodged a regional satrap in the southern state of Telangana, its governments in two of the three northern states fell. In the fourth, Madhya Pradesh, it didn’t come close to repeating its defeat of the BJP in 2018.
These were three of the only states in India’s heavily populated, Hindi-speaking northern belt where the Congress still has a presence, and most observers see the BJP’s triumph as a sign that Modi’s re-election next year is guaranteed. The BJP has twice now won majorities in India’s parliament by sweeping almost every constituency in the north and the west of the country.