Few expect the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lose its ruling status when the vote is announced on May 23. However, heightened military tensions between India and Pakistan in February distracted voters from Modi’s economic track record and re-focused the debate on national security issues. Modi’s BJP has run a slick campaign and dominated newspaper front pages, television screens, social media posts and billboards – because it can afford to. The BJP lost three crucial states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan) to Congress in state elections in late 2018. Pratyush Rao is an Associate Director and the lead analyst for India and South Asia at Control Risks, the global specialist risk consulting firm

Source: Forbes May 17, 2019 17:37 UTC