Modi, Hindutva, development and welfare pillars of BJP campaign in LS polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power at the Centre in 2014 with a straight majority not only retained power five years later, but did so by increasing its seats and vote share, expanding its footprint across more parts of the country, and gaining a toehold in some communities considered the traditional vote bank of the Opposition.
Having emerged as a hegemon with an insatiable appetite to win elections, it is now aiming to retain power for a third straight time by breaking its previous record.
The National Democratic Alliance, which the BJP leads, is eyeing 400-plus seats out of 543 — up from the previous 303 — and over 50% of the total votes polled — up from the previous 37%. It has started an aggressive electoral campaign that will be pivoted on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity, and his “guarantees”.
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The party will also continue with its time-tested formula of social engineering, giving representation to a diverse set of castes, and the dexterity with which it balances the development agenda with its ideological agenda, party leaders said.
“We are confident that PM Modi’s guarantees and the BJP government’s performance in the last decade will see the party sail past the Opposition with a better and bigger mandate than before,” a party functionary said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While the BJP expects its record in infrastructure development, ensuring basic amenities such as piped water and electricity, food security to 800 million people, and a perception of corruption-free governance to improve its tally, the fulfilment of ideological promises and the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will pave its entry into territories that have been impregnable, the functionary said.
“There is an unprecedented wave of support for the party. The consecration of the Ram temple has united the country. From villages in southern states to the far east, people are celebrating the homecoming of Lord Ram. We expect the tide to turn in our favour in states that are considered as fortresses for us,” the functionary added.
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To cross 400 seats, the party has set its sights on winning seats from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, and adding more from states such as Odisha (where it may yet join hands with the Biju Janata Dal), Assam, Telangana and West Bengal. In 2019, it won eight of 21 seats in Odisha, 18 of 42 in West Bengal and nine of the 14 in Assam.
In the south, while it won 25 of the 28 in Karnataka and four of the 17 in Telangana, it did not secure even one seat in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
After its landslide victory in 2019, when it won 303 seats on its own, the BJP set about fulfilling its long-pending poll promises — the abrogation of Article 370, outlawing triple talaq, and passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. While it has not brought in a central law to implement a Uniform Civil Code, several BJP-ruled states have shown the intent to roll out a uniform law governing marriage, adoption and inheritance. The BJP-ruled Uttarakhand has taken the lead in passing such a law in the state assembly.
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In 2019, the party went to the people with the report card of its five-year tenure, underscoring how its policies empowered the poor, the marginalised and those relegated to the fringes of the political mainstream. Through social welfare interventions such as subsidised housing and cooking gas, bank accounts and health insurance, the party claimed to have reduced inequities spanning decades.
Even as it tried to shed its image as that of a predominantly right-wing entity with the Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas dictum,it kept the ideological moorings intact by appeasing the core vote bank through a narrative of Hindutva . Meanwhile, the party opted for a muscular foreign policy and a strong approach to internal security.
This was seen in the months after the 2019 Pulwama attack, which was followed by the Balakot airstrike. Political commentators attributed the jump in the BJP’s vote share from 33% to 37% to the hard-nosed approach to national security. In 2024, the party will continue to make its zero-tolerance policy towards terror, its crackdown on illegal funding and other internal security measures to check Left-wing extremism as the mainstay of its campaign.
Hours before the elections were announced, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated the crackdown on terror.
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He put out a post on X about the action against terror groups in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Pursuing PM @narendramodi Ji’s policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, the MHA has declared four factions of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League—namely, JKPL (Mukhtar Ahmed Waza), JKPL (Bashir Ahmad Tota), JKPL (Ghulam Mohammad Khan) and JKPL (Aziz Sheikh) led by Yaqoob Sheikh—as ‘Unlawful Associations’. These organizations were involved in inciting terror and abetting secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir. The Modi government is committed to suppressing terrorism ruthlessly,” he said.
The government has said that there will be no change in its decision to roll out CAA to fast-track citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, notwithstanding the protests by opposition; asserting “ko kaha, woh kiya (did what we promised)”. It also snubbed the US, referring to the country’s concerns about CAA as “misplaced, misinformed, and unwarranted” and an interference in New Delhi’s internal matters.
The expansion of the party and its presence in states considered as opposition bastions such as West Bengal and in the North-East states and its dominance in the Hindi heartland were contributors to its big win in the 2019 general elections. They were the outcome of the party’s traditional boots-on-the-ground outreach.
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Strategic alliances with parties that controlled polarised vote banks have helped the party build a coalition that includes dominant castes that did not traditionally support the BJP.
As it did in 2014 and 2019, the party will continue to bank on the so-called upper castes, and other backward classes (OBCs) and Dalits who have been wooed with political representation as well as social schemes, while expanding its reach to subcategories within these groups.
“It was (then party chief) Amit Shah’s strategic thinking that brought together upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and non Jatav Dalits together to support the BJP in Uttar Pradesh against the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance of opposition parties including the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal). Similarly, in Bihar we got on board LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) and JDU (Janata Dal United) to win all but one of the 40 seats,” said the functionary quoted above.
In 2019, the BJP won 62 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh; 39 of the 40 in Bihar in alliance with the JD(U); 28 of 29 in Madhya Pradesh, 24 of 25 in Rajasthan, 11 of the 14 in Jharkhand and nine of 11 in Chhattisgarh, belying critics who predicted a poor outcome in these states based on the party’s poor showing in the assembly elections in these state barring Uttar Pradesh.
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This time, too, the party has gone all out to stitch alliances to boost its bid to increase its tally. A renewed NDA is poised to take on the INDIA bloc of opposition parties with old allies, such as the Telugu Desam Party, and new partners such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (Secular), and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
The party’s powerful narrative-building, which takes the bite out of the Opposition’s criticism — particularly on social justice and what is seen as its divisive politics by minorities — was credited for overcoming voter concerns about a spate of issues, notably unemployment and inflation, in 2019.
This time, Modi has targeted welfare schemes for the poor, women, youth and farmers, collectively dubbing them as four castes, and made them front and centre of the election narrative.
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India no longer being part of “fragile five” economies has been a talking point at all rallies and outreach programmes. Although on the back foot over the issue of electoral bonds, the party is planning to rebut the opposition’s narrative about the funding mechanism that has come under the scanner.
“The PM has already set the tone. Unlike dynastic parties, where family and their interest comes first, the country is Modi ka parivaar (Modi’s family). He has sought a third term to make India the third largest economy and spelt out his Viksit Bharat (developed India) agenda,” a second functionary said, requesting anonymity.
“The Opposition is still scrambling to find a face against him, while under his guidance the party cadre is already working on the ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar (this time, beyond 400)’ mission.”