ISAS Insights

The state election results in three states in North India should worry the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. An analysis of the vote share across the three states reveals that the party suffered substantial losses across constituencies and that it lost a substantial number of safe seats. Since it is crucial for the party to win a high number of seats in the Hindi heartland at the forthcoming national elections, the results suggest that the fight for 2019 is more open than previously thought, despite the fact that Narendra Modi’s party remain the frontrunner.