How could India’s political landscape change?
Ms Singh said India faces a “very different era” compared with the last five years.
“In many ways, this is the shift to what had already been the norm before the rise of Prime Minister Modi. That is a return to coalition partners, a return to alliance politics,” she added.
Ms Singh said that the cult of personality politics, as well as the concentration of politics in New Delhi, will also dissipate.
At least two of the major coalition partners that Mr Modi must rely on – the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United) – have influence in South and East India respectively. This means regional politics will begin to play a more important role at the national level, Ms Singh added.
Mr Sircar from NUS said it will be “really unchartered territory” for Mr Modi, who “aggressively centralises power” and “does not play nice with coalition partners”.
He questioned whether Mr Modi would form new state institutions to keep his coalition together, like what he did against his political opponents.
On what role the opposition could play in the next government, Mr Sircar noted that citizens had to take to the streets to air their grievances against the BJP in the past decade, given that there was no parliamentary or electoral opposition for all intents and purposes.
“Perhaps now, people who have grievances can use formal parliamentary procedures again,” he added.
“So perhaps this is going to be a very, very good thing for parliamentary democracy.”
