2019 India April–May LS general elections and assembly elections of 2019

[pikachu]

Everything looks like expected, no? BJP losing ground in the Hindi belt, but making up enough in Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka and wherever else.

[pikachu]

Who is next in line to take control of the INC if this holds?

pure speculation, but i'll be surprised if they dump rahul.

even if they do i expect priyanka.

[pikachu]

Also, yeesh, what an ugly (if not unsurprising) result all-around so far. Not really sure what the opposition can do other than hope people will eventually get sick of Modi, but even if they do, who's to say that the most popular alternative ends up being Hindutva but more? Just discouraging to see.

[pikachu]

Who is next in line to take control of the INC if this holds?

I think Rahul will hold on in Kerala, that is not bjp friendly turf.

yeah but you'd think if they barely gained any seats they would dump him as leader

We'll see, but Indian politics operate differently from the West.

[pikachu]

I'm a bit wary of saying that India's in the midst of transitioning to a national two-party/two-alliance system - if we look at results in West Bengal and Orissa, yeah there's been big drop from 2014 to 2019 for the regional parties, but if we compare to 2009, the BJP's around the same level of the Communists and Congress respectively. In a lot of these states, it doesn't look like the BJP is replacing regional parties; it's replacing whatever the national opposition to those regional parties was, whether it be the Congress or something else.

(I'm also skeptical that the INC is going to come up with a compelling enough alternative to have a national sweep when the BJP falters, but that's another story.)

[pikachu]

Is there a single other political party in the world which is so resistant to having their leader resign after he leads them to two of their worst performances ever? I just don't understand the INC's strategy moving forward beyond just hoping that Modi eventually trips up.

[pikachu]

Any particular reason why the NDA struggled in this round of elections? Is the economy finally biting back at them?