With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, political parties, both national and regional, are prepping to prove their mettle on the national electoral stage. Several parties have already begun campaigning for the elections in bigger states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana due to witness Assembly polls in November-December 2023. After the recent Karnataka elections, electoral equations across the country have shifted sands as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its only bastion in the south even as the Indian National Congress (INC), otherwise struggling to hold its ground, recorded a thumping victory. In Telangana, another key state due to go to polls in December 2023, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s rising national aspirations as his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) transitioned into a national face in the form of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will present new politics for both the state and the national elections.
The incumbent party will face anti-incumbency challenges and a strong contest from the INC, buoyed by its victory in neighbouring Karnataka. Similar trends of regional party dominance are evident in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, two other big states which will witness Assembly polls in early 2024.
We take a look at the key states that went to polls in 2023 and those that will do so before the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 to understand the trends in politics before the big national battle next year.