India Elects 2019 provides expert analysis on India’s national elections and their impact on the country’s economy, domestic policy, and foreign relations. It brings together insights from Carnegie’s experts in Washington, New Delhi, and around the world.
The South Asia Program informs policy debates relating to the region’s security, economy, and political development. From strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific to India’s internal dynamics and U.S. engagement with the region, the program offers in-depth, rigorous research and analysis on South Asia’s most critical challenges.
How a second Narendra Modi-led BJP government affects the party system, minority rights, the economy, and federalism in India.
With the BJP’s return to power following May 2019 general election, India appears to have ushered in a new dominant party system—one premised on a unique set of political principles, showing a clear break with what came before.
Indian state institutions haven’t kept up with the country’s political and economic transformations. Now, India’s new government has three clear pathways to deliver much-needed reforms.
This election confirms what has been increasingly evident over the past five years: that the BJP, under Modi’s tutelage, has constructed a political hegemony that is impressively resilient.
The next government in India will confront significant tests in managing relations with the great powers and India's neighbors.
The post-election government in New Delhi—which could see Modi’s return to the helm—will have to confront serious regional and global foreign policy challenges.
In Indian politics, there are neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies. Both the BJP and Congress Party are doing the election math that would lead to a winning coalition.
At the very moment when secularism is on the ropes in India, its defenders appear to have abandoned it.
If federalism is the glue that has kept the world’s largest democracy together, there are growing signs that this adhesive is becoming unstuck.
The BJP government is getting nervous about its reelection chances, but the race remains the BJP’s to lose.
