The Assam assembly elections continued the trend towards deepening of religious polarisation in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance strategy helped in retaining its hold over the ethnic base that had shifted to the party in 2016.
The National Democratic Alliance registered its best ever performance in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. Not only did it win all but one seat, but it won mostly with huge margins. Two reasons stand out for the performance of the NDA: its reconstitution to include Janata Dal (United) and the high level of trust in the leadership of Narendra Modi. With assembly elections in the next year, it remains to be seen if and how the opposition alliance will be able to recuperate from its defeat.
A scrutiny of the Indian economy and the state of public finances reveals that while there are a few areas of improvement under the current government, the economy remains fragile and, worryingly, the situation has worsened in some other respects. It was hoped that the Union Budget 2018–19 would take measures to address some of these concerns but these expectations have been belied. Budget 2018–19, possibly with an eye on elections, has made grand announcements instead of taking hard decisions and making adequate allocations towards key sectors of the economy.
Political conditions under the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala provided considerable opportunities for both the Left Democratic Front and the National Democratic Alliance to muster people's support on a number of issues ranging from rampant corruption to social conditions of women and marginalised communities. While the LDF effectively reaped the windfall of several graft cases in which many ministers as well as the personal staff of the chief minister's office were directly or indirectly involved, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA has steadily succeeded in making inroads into the support base of both the fronts, as well as among new voters, though the party won just one seat.
