The state police are thus making a point of eliminating them by adopting methods worthy of the Philippines’ Rodrigo Dutertre. In Uttar Pradesh, the outgoing Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, the priest of the Goraknath temple, has promoted a variant of this model by emphasizing the fight against delinquents (including those of the Muslim faith) in the name of law and order.

Its principles, promoted by Narendra Modi's national-populism, are now embedded at a regional level. This success reflects a major trend in Indian politics: that the Hindu nationalism embodied by the BJP has become hegemonic. This included Uttar Pradesh, the political heavyweight state with over 200 million inhabitants, on which all eyes were glued during the election period. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, took or retained power in four of these states. What lessons can be learnt from India’s recent elections, and the results announced on March 10?īetween February and March, five states in India were called to the polls in order to vote in the Assembly elections. Christophe Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow at CERI (Centre de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po, considers what India’s recent elections mean for the country’s future. On the contrary, the success of parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown that the economy plays a small role in determining electoral outcomes.

In the wake of the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 crisis, few attempts have been made at recovering or restructuring public policy. Amidst growing political polarization, parties are playing on identity issues to further their electoral goals ahead of the 2024 election.

India’s recent state elections emphasize the extent to which the country’s political landscape is changing.

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