Electoral Gains in States, a Growth-Inflation Balance Remain Highlights of the Term So Far

In 2014, Narendra Modi became the second non-Congress Prime Minister in India to assume office on the strength of his party winning a parliamentary majority of its own.

- Roshan Kishore

NEW DELHI: The first time this happened was in 1977 when the Congress lost power in a landslide election held after the Emergency imposed in 1975. Modi's 2019 victory, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not just retaining but adding to its 2014 majority, sent a loud and clear message that the BJP's parliamentary dominance was no flash in the pan. When read with the failure of the Congress party to resurrect itself—it won a paltry 44 and 52 parliamentary seats in 2014 and 2019—this gave an impression that Indian politics had become a one-sided contest. The results of 2024 challenged these assumptions. Not only did the BJP lose its parliamentary majority, the Congress made a significant comeback to almost bounce back to the triple-digit mark in the Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi assumed office as the Prime Minister for the third time on June 9, 2024, but the government was seen more as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government than the Modi government—the moniker which had gotten attached with it in the last ten years.

One year after its sobering performance in the general elections, what many described as the beginning of the end of the BJP's current phase of dominance, where do the BJP and the NDA government stand? Here are three charts which answer this question.