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The BJP scripted history by returning to power for a third straight term, but its tally rested at 240 seats—32 short of the majority mark of 272—after comfortably crossing the magic figure back to back in 2014 and 2019
Six states went to polls this year. The BJP and its allies won four, while the opposition INDIA bloc managed to win Jammu & Kashmir and retain Jharkhand. (PTI Photos)
The year 2024 in Indian politics was a rollercoaster ride for leaders and their parties. The big poll season began with chatter around the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s “abki baar 400 paar” slogan, following its landslide victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh assembly polls last winter. BJP supporters were also infused with new energy after the opening of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January this year, a watershed that brought a movement spanning over a century to an end.
But it was the opposition that was buoyed after the 2024 election results. The BJP scripted history by returning to power for a third straight term, but its tally rested at 240 seats—32 short of the majority mark of 272—after comfortably crossing the magic figure back to back in 2014 and 2019. It needed the help of allies to form government at the Centre. Later, a section of analysts would stress how significant the BJP’s victory was in a year when incumbent governments collapsed across the world—from the US to the UK.
Even then, the BJP’s Lok Sabha showing was way off what most pollsters had predicted, bringing smiles to a united opposition bloc. The Congress doubled its 2019 tally, ended up with 99 seats and proclaimed “moral victory”, an assertion called out by its critics who asked what it was celebrating. Nonetheless, those celebrations were ephemeral. The BJP managed to change the narrative, scoring stunning wins in assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, the two states that dented its numbers in the Lok Sabha.
Here’s a breakdown of what all happened in Indian politics in 2024:
Lok Sabha Elections
The Lok Sabha polls threw up a bouquet of surprises. First, the BJP won 240 seats and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) bagged around 290 seats in the 543-member House. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana disappointed the BJP and brought down its tally from 303 seats in 2019. The BJP was hoping to increase its seats in West Bengal and southern states, but regional parties like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and MK Stalin’s DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) stood their ground. On the other hand, the BJP swept Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Second, the Congress’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls became a talking point—more so since its leaders were visibly happy (if not euphoric) about the results that came at a time when many had written the party off. The Congress regained some lost ground in Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana and Punjab. However, the impact was limited, and it faced direct contests with the BJP in Rajasthan and Karnataka. Later, BJP leaders said the Opposition gained due to the spreading of what they called “false narratives” around the Constitution and reservation, especially in the battleground states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, several BJP allies said that the “400 paar” slogan could have backfired.
6 Months Of Modi 3.0
Despite losing the majority, the BJP retained all major portfolios like Home, Finance, Defence, and Foreign Affairs. The party even assigned the same portfolios to ministers who were holding the responsibilities and made Om Birla the Lok Sabha speaker again, signalling a continuity in the government.
However, the government’s scrapping of the UPSC’s lateral entry policy after objections by the BJP’s Bihar allies Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U) and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) was dubbed a “U-turn” by the Opposition who pointed at “coalition pressures”. Later in the year, a controversial Waqf amendment bill was sent to the Parliament’s standing committee, a first such referral in five years.
Assembly Elections
Six states went to polls this year. The BJP and its allies won four, while the opposition INDIA bloc managed to win Jammu & Kashmir and retain Jharkhand. In J&K’s first assembly election after it was made a Union Territory in 2019, the National Conference emerged triumphant in alliance with the Congress. However, the BJP bagged over half the seats in the Jammu region, an impressive performance. In Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s Hemant Soren was sworn in as the chief minister again, with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) his allies.
State elections in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were held simultaneously with the national polls. In Odisha, the BJP ended the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Naveen Patnaik’s two-decade rule and won a shock majority. Buzz around Patnaik’s ill health and his “successor” bureaucrat-turned-politician V K Pandian taking over as the CM became talking points in the BJP campaign.
In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP was decimated, five years after it stormed to power with a massive mandate. BJP ally Chandrababu Naidu, who spent 53 days in jail before getting bail in a corruption case, returned as the chief minister after voters gave a massive mandate to his Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Most pollsters had predicted the BJP’s rout in Haryana, but the party formed government in the northern state for the third consecutive time in a miracle comeback. Internal rebellion, among other factors, was attributed to the poor performance of the Congress, while political pundits applauded BJP’s booth management.
Maharashtra was the finale of the 2024 election year. It was the state where the BJP-led NDA lost the battle to the INDIA bloc in the national polls. Six major parties, with three on each side, went to the ballot battle. But the BJP’s Mahayuti won a big mandate, securing over 200 seats in the 288-member assembly. The BJP won over 134 seats on its own with a strike rate of almost 90%. Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also seemed to have settled the “who’s the real?” debate with their dominance over Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, according to a section of analysts and the winning sides.
