South Asia

In 2014, when the results of the Indian elections were released, commentators called it a ‘historic’ verdict. The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), led by Narendra Modi, won 282 seats and secured a majority in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) on its own- something that no party had managed to do over the previous 30 years. If the 2014 polls were, indeed, ‘historic’, the results of the 2019 Indian elections are even more remarkable. The BJP not only managed to secure a majority on its own again, but also increased its seat tally to 303 and its vote share to 37.4 per cent, up from 31.3 per cent in 2014. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 352 seats, well above the majority mark of 272. This is, indeed, a historic verdict again.