ASSESSMENTS

In the Indian Elections, Voters Will Weigh Jobs Against Security

Mar 10, 2019 | 17:19 GMT

Supporters hold up flags in support of the Indian National Congress (INC) party during the launch of the party's campaign in Punjab ahead of India’s upcoming elections.

Supporters of the Indian National Congress (INC) party attend a rally in Punjab in March 2019. Narendra Modi, the most powerful Indian prime minister in a generation, is leading his incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against a raft of opposition parties under the Indian National Congress (INC) banner, all unifying in a bid to dislodge him from power. 

(NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode to victory in 2014 on a message of economic prosperity, but given  India's lackluster job creation in recent years, that will be a difficult sell in the next election. 
  • To fire up support for his re-election, Modi will, therefore, shift the focus of his 2019 campaign to development and national security matters.
  • To challenge Modi, India's opposition parties' will attempt to paint him as corrupt, though such tactics will only feed into the prime minister's narrative that the opposition platform lacks substance. 
  • Regardless of the upcoming election's outcome, however, the next government in New Delhi will be forced to grapple with creating jobs while advancing the country's lagging industrialization. 
 

The defining event of the Indian political calendar is just weeks away. By May, over half a billion voters will choose 543 representatives to serve in India's lower house of parliament. The elections, which are the world's largest democratic exercise, will take place over several weeks, and the stakes are high: Narendra Modi, the most powerful Indian prime minister in a generation, is leading his incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against a raft of opposition parties under the Indian National Congress (INC) banner, all unifying in a bid to dislodge him from power. In 2014, the BJP's victory marked the first single-party majority in nearly three decades. And now, the party is looking to set another precedent in Indian politics by achieving successive non-Congress majority governments. But aside from having the INC as its main opponent, the environment that handed the BJP its victory five years ago bears little resemblance...

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