At the start of 2024, it seemed as if a massive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Indian General Elections was a given. When the BJP turned in a middling performance, falling below the halfway majority mark in the Lok Sabha, it meant that—for the first time under Prime Minister Narendra Modi—the party would actually be reliant on coalition partners to remain in power, while also facing a much more powerful opposition block in Parliament. The narrative emerging out of that result made it seem as if the Congress-led INDIA grouping was ascendant.


