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2019 Indian General Elections: Breaking Down the Landslide Victory

Ritwika Verma*

The 2019 Indian elections was a colossal event in the Indian political scene. It broke records in terms of levels of voter participation, wherein according to the Election Commission of India, 900 million people were eligible to vote and it saw the highest voter turnout in Indian history with 67.11%. In this paper the authors will try to present explanations for the BJP's success by looking at various factors such as the significance of a focus on leaders over political parties in the election campaign, lack of a strong opposition candidate, reasons behind the change in support from previously unfavoured constituencies, their grand election manifesto which aims to tackle various social and political nuances of the society, the favouritism towards the incumbent due to its socio-economic and political policies of the previous term and its attempts to improve on national security following terrorist attacks days before the general elections. India has seen landslide victories before as well in the years of 1971, 1977, 1984 and 2014. However, the government had never won a second term in office up until the BJP’s re-return in 2019. This manifests the question of how far should India's 2019 elections be seen as an unparalleled landslide which is merely an interruption to the normal political order rather than a pivotal realignment of the terms of electoral competition.