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The Leadership Factor in the 2024 Elections: Did Narendra Modi’s Impact Peak Much Before the Elections?

Document Cited in Related
Published date01 December 2024
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/23210230241289449
AuthorSandeep Shastri
Date01 December 2024
The Leadership Factor in the 2024
Elections: Did Narendra Modi’s
Impact Peak Much Before the
Elections?
Sandeep Shastri1
Abstract
This article seeks to examine the role of the leadership factor in the 2024 elections. The Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) made leadership the centre-piece of its campaign and appeal for votes. While the
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) coalition consciously avoided a confronta-
tion with the BJP around the leadership issue, this factor continued to assume salience during the cam-
paign. By locating the debate in the wider context of the 2014 and 2019 elections, this article, assesses
whether the impact of the leadership factor, especially in the case of BJP (and the National Democratic
Alliance [NDA]) has plateaued and did not add any traction to the campaign of the ruling party. A set
of questions asked in the National Election Study (NES) 2024 compared with data from NES 2014 and
NES 2019 form the basis of the analysis.
Keywords
Leadership, BJP, Congress, preferred Prime Minister, 2024 Lok Sabha Elections
Approaching the Theme
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw a contest between an incumbent ruling party and a resurgent opposi-
tion, aiming to secure the public mandate. For the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which was completing a
decade in power, it was hoping to ensure a third successive term under the leadership of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. Even as the dates of the 2024 elections approached, it became increasingly apparent that
the leadership factor would be central to the election campaign. Ever since Modi assumed office as
Prime Minister in 2014, the key role of the leadership in centralizing power and shaping the electoral
destiny of the party was evident, both in national and state level elections. Especially when viewed from
the prism of the BJP strategy, the 2024 campaign saw this effort reaching a crescendo.
In recent years, elections in parliamentary systems have often focused on the leadership factor
(Burrett, 2023; Balmas et al., 2014; Berz, 2020; Burrett, 2023; Carter, 2015; Chhibber & Verma, 2019;
Original Article
Studies in Indian Politics
12(2) 265–276, 2024
© 2024 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23210230241289449
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
1 NITTE Education Trust, Govindapura, Bengaluru, India
Corresponding author:
Sandeep Shastri, Director Academics, NITTE Education Trust, Govindapura, Bengaluru 560066, India.
E-mail: sshastri48@gmail.com

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