Narendra Modi’s party sweeps in north and central India
A bundle of state polls suggests the Bharatiya Janata Party is well-placed for the general election
The political divide between India’s poor heartland and richer south has got even starker. In five state polls, the last big tranche ahead of a general election due by next May, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won emphatic victories in northern Rajasthan and in the central states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In both Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, India’s ruling party thereby unseated its main national rival, the Congress party, dashing its hopes of a revival in the Hindi-speaking “cow belt” where around half a billion Indians live.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Big Mo for Modi”
From the December 9th 2023 edition
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