Lok Sabha Election Results Day Highlights

While the final results are yet to be out, most of the trends indicate that the National Democratic Alliance is returning to power and Narendra Modi will become the Prime Minister. Both the BJP and the NDA are likely to get more seats than 2014. An expensive, communally charged, personality-centered campaign seems to have paid off for the BJP, which made major gains in West Bengal and Jharkhand, among other states, while retaining its stranglehold over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. The hopes of strong resistance from the Gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh were belied as the BJP more or less retained its vote share while losing only a few seats. (Get the 2019 Lok Sabha election results day highlights below.)

Tamil Nadu remained one of the few states to buck the trend, with the DMK-led alliance sweeping the state. Kerala saw massive gains for the Congress, probably due to a consolidation of minority votes against the BJP and at least a small shift of voters from the BJP to the UDF. In Odisha, the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD stormed back to power in the state and won the majority of Lok Sabha seats. In Andhra Pradesh, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy is set to the become the Chief Minister for the first time, marking a dramatic turnaround in his political career. In Telangana, K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s dominance continues unchallenged.

The coming days will be important for India’s political landscape. Bolstered by the strong mandate, the BJP will next cast its eyes on the State governments of Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and perhaps even West Bengal. The new government is also likely to continue unabated policies that have caused mass despair, especially in rural India. For people’s movements and the left, which plummeted to a new low in these election, the questions of how to take these issues to the masses and mobilise them effectively is an issue that will call for serious thought.