Lessons from the 18th Lok Sabha elections of 2024

Lessons from the 18th Lok Sabha elections of 2024 

Sugato Hazra

The largest exercise of democracy in the history of the world said the US State Department spokesperson in his official reaction after the six week long election process was completed. Prime Minister Modi came back to power for the third consecutive term, though with a reduced majority and supported by coalition partners. While opposition, particularly the major opposition party Congress, improved its tally substantially are not happy. Its leader Rahul Gandhi, who used all tricks available in electioneering, not everything strictly fair, keeps complaining that India’s EVMs are unsafe and must be scrapped. Hidden in such bitter repetitive whining lies the frustration of not managing to dethrone their arch enemy who has been painted with all shades of black including by foreign and “independent liberal” media and continuation of what The Economist calls “the Modi Raj”.  

The question, and hope for the opposition, is will Modi last full five years and rule with his standard sangfroid? Let that be as it unravels, the issues which the election for the 18th Lok Sabha in India threw up have come here to stay long.

Electorate has the last word!

First and foremost is the issue of reaching out to electorates with the message of their leader – explain the message for everyone to digest and win their support. The task was more difficult for the ruling BJP since anti-incumbency could not be winked at. At the same time there was complacency as well, supporters feeling confident of the third term for Modi not taking the extra pain to come out and cast vote. For opposition it needed little effort to bring the disgruntled to the polling booths.

Election narratives do not favour the incumbents

Second and no less critical is to argue against the points raised by the opponents, come back quickly with rebuttal and convince the gullible. Here again the ruling party is always at a disadvantage. Anybody who benefitted from good governance still nurtures some grievance or other and readily accepts criticisms, factual or manufactured. This is what saw Modi’s BJP losing its stronghold in Uttar Pradesh.

Have ears to the ground

Third point that cadre-based parties like BJP cannot get over is that their own cadre and leaders have the best cognizance of what’s going on. This feeling becomes a major flaw especially when successful central leaders throw their caution to the wind and behave arrogantly. This was the major drawback for BJP in Uttar Pradesh. In contrast opposition, including Congress, having shortages of cadre trusted hired professionals as also technology in rattling the incumbent – in 2024 successfully.

The Road Ahead

Clearly elections, in a complex country like India, are knotty enough to be managed by a handful of leaders sitting in the capital and having ears to their favourites’ voices from the grassroots. The task is tougher for incumbents and needs meticulous support of professionals. A professional working on issues in a geography will not be influenced unduly by the local euphoria, will have his ears to the ground and in order to maintain credibility, essential for future business, will provide critical inputs which often be ignored by party operatives. The election 2024 has seen relative success of opposition due to use of support from non-party cadre who had their reasons to oppose the ruling BJP. Here Prime Minister Modi’s supporting team failed intoxicated as they were with the idea of invincibility of their leader.


Sugato Hazra is the Founder-Director of PoliMinds Consult, a Political PR and Content Solutions company. He has authored the book Influencing India: Lobbying in the World's Largest Democracy (Bridging Borders, 2011) and Losing the Plot: Political Isolation of West Bengal (Niyogi Books, 2021) and co-authored Winning the Mandate: The Indian Experience (Sage, 2020). He can be reached at sugatoATpolimindsconsultDOTcom

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