About General Election 2024
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The stage is set for the grandest battle of all with the country preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. The elections will take place in multiple phases during the months of April and May while the results are expected to be announced towards the end of May.
The BJP, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is confident of winning a third straight term in power, especially after the party's recent successes in the state assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. PM Modi has given the NDA a target of winning over 400 seats - a feat only achieved once in India's electoral history when Congress swept the polls in 1984. Additionally, for BJP, PM Modi has set a target of over 370 seats. Meanwhile, several opposition parties, including Congress, are contesting in alliance under the recently-formed INDIA bloc. The opposition parties have been holding tricky seat-sharing negotiations across states to pose a united challenge to the BJP.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP stormed to power by winning 303 seats on its own while the broader NDA alliance won 353 seats out of the 543 where elections were held. The opposition parties, especially the Congress, were again reduced to the margins after the dominant performance by the BJP. The Congress managed to win just 52 seats in the lower house, in a slight improvement from its worst-ever tally in 2014.
In terms of vote share, the BJP won over 37.6% of the total ballots while the Congress clinched 19.4% of the votes. The 2024 Lok Sabha Elections are important for both BJP and Congress as they will define the political discourse for the next five years, and beyond. For BJP, another victory in the national polls will further cement its position as an unrivaled political force in the Indian electoral landscape.
Even before the votes are cast, PM Modi has asserted that his government will return for a third term during which India will become the third largest economy in the world. On the other hand, the Congress is fighting to reverse its slacking presence in the political landscape and improve its 2019 performance in what is now a shared opposition space under the INDIA bloc. Besides the two national parties, the elections also hold significance for a host of regional parties who are trying to expand or retain their foothold across various states. Some of these parties include TMC, SP, DMK, AAP, BSP, JD(U), BRS, TDP, Shiv Sena (both factions), NCP (both factions), YSR Congress, CPM, etc.
