A political party’s national strength is easier to see in its wins. A fuller and fairer picture also requires looking at its losses. This article looks specifically at the state assembly elections BJP has lost since Modi became national leader in 2014, a companion piece to the party’s expansion covered elsewhere in this series.
Jharkhand, 2019
In December 2019, BJP lost power in Jharkhand, a state it had governed, to a coalition led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress. Al Jazeera’s coverage of the result noted it came in a state that had seen a series of mob-lynching incidents in preceding years, and the loss was widely read at the time as at least a partial local rebuke of the outgoing state government’s record, alongside more conventional anti-incumbency dynamics.
Himachal Pradesh, 2022
BJP lost the hill state of Himachal Pradesh to Congress in December 2022, even as the party swept its own home state of Gujarat in polls held around the same time. Deccan Herald’s coverage of the split result specifically framed it as BJP “sweeping Gujarat” while “ceding Himachal Pradesh to Congress,” a contrast that underlined how state-level results can diverge sharply even when held close together, driven by local rather than purely national political dynamics.
Karnataka, 2023
The loss of Karnataka to Congress in May 2023 carried particular significance, since it left BJP without a state government anywhere in southern India at that point, as reported by The News Minute at the time. Time magazine’s coverage described the result as underlining a “waning grasp” for the party specifically in the country’s south, a region where BJP’s electoral strength has historically lagged its performance in northern and western states.
Telangana, 2023
Later the same year, in December 2023, Congress also won power in Telangana, another southern state, defeating the regional party that had governed it previously, with BJP itself finishing well behind in the contest, according to NPR’s coverage of that election cycle, further reinforcing the pattern of the party’s continued difficulty establishing a strong governing presence in the south specifically, even as it recorded wins in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh in that same December 2023 round of state elections.
What These Losses Have in Common
Looking at these results together, a pattern emerges that’s distinct from BJP’s national-level dominance: nearly all of its most significant state-level losses during this period have come either in southern India, a region where the party’s organisational roots remain comparatively shallow, or have coincided with strong local anti-incumbency sentiment against a specific sitting state government, rather than reflecting any single national trend against the party as a whole.
Why This Matters for a Fair Picture
A site covering Modi’s political career in depth serves readers better by including this record alongside the wins covered elsewhere in this series, rather than presenting only a wins-only account. BJP’s national parliamentary strength under Modi has been real and well documented, but state-level politics in India operates on its own logic, with local leadership, regional issues, and specific state-level anti-incumbency dynamics that don’t always move in the same direction as national sentiment.
The 2024 National Result as a Related Data Point
Time magazine’s coverage of the 2024 general election, headlined around Modi winning the national vote while “the BJP lost power,” pointed to a related dynamic playing out even at the national level that year, where BJP’s own seat count fell well short of the outright majority the party had held for the previous decade, requiring coalition partners to govern, a result covered fully in our separate article on the 2024 NDA government. Read together, the state-level losses covered above and this national-level seat decline suggest a broader, gradual softening of BJP’s standalone electoral dominance across the mid-2020s compared to the party’s peak strength in 2019, even as it has continued to win the elections that matter most for national government formation.
A Reasonable Way to Read the Full Record
None of this changes the basic fact that BJP remains India’s dominant national political force under Modi’s leadership, having won three consecutive general elections and continuing to govern the large majority of India’s states and population, a record covered in detail elsewhere in this series. It does mean that an accurate account of that dominance should acknowledge it isn’t absolute or unchallenged everywhere, and that specific, well-documented state-level losses are a real and ongoing part of the same broader political record.
Bottom Line
BJP’s record under Modi includes genuine, significant state-level losses, in Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana among the most notable, concentrated disproportionately in southern India and in states with strong local anti-incumbency dynamics. Reading these losses alongside the party’s considerable national wins gives a more complete and accurate picture than either set of results does on its own.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available election records and news reports listed below. It is written for general informational purposes and does not represent an official statement from the Government of India, the Election Commission of India, or the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sources
FAQ
