India’s political map has cracked further after the recent Assembly polls in five states. While South India is ‘BJP-mukt’, barring Puducherry, North India is ‘Congress-mukt’, barring Himachal Pradesh. The BJP controls western India, but the east presents a mixed picture, with Trinamool Congress in Bengal, Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, and a Mahagathbandhan in power in Bihar. With the BJP sweeping to power in the three Hindi heartland states but remaining a distant third in Telangana, the geographical fragmentation of the polity appears even more pronounced.
The personality of Prime Minister Modi dominated the BJP’s 2023 campaign in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. The BJP consciously did not project any chief ministerial face and ran a Modi-centric campaign, which paid off handsomely for the party in the north but not in Telangana.
