Episode 222: Road to 2024 General Elections

The Assembly election results in five Indian states, which were announced on 3 December 2023, had a few surprises. The set of elections was also the last before the 2024 general elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed back to power in Madhya Pradesh, where the election was expected to be close. In Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BJP defeated the incumbent Congress. In Rajasthan, where ruling parties are usually shown the door every election, the result was somewhat expected. However, in Chhattisgarh, where many had predicted that the Congress would retain power, the BJP won comfortably. The southern state of Telangana was the only bright spot for the Congress where it dislodged the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which had been in power in the state for two successive terms. In this episode, Dr Ronojoy Sen, Senior Research Fellow, ISAS, discusses the individual state election results and their impact on the 2024 general elections with Dr Neelanjan Sircar, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.