Elections that shaped India | 2014: The year Narendra Modi rose to power Premium

2014 marked a historic election with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landslide victory, setting the stage for a new era in Indian politics.

The year is 2014. A lotus blooms on front pages of newspapers and saffron flags deck the streets. The air is abuzz with reports of a ‘landslide’ victory, a wave sweeping across India. The world’s largest election concluded on May 17, and the mandate of 81.5 crore people has revealed itself — not with a whimper, but a bang. Three words, etched in bold, take centre-stage on The Hindu’s front page: PRIME MINISTER MODI. 

India has voted for a Prime Minister who promised acche din, days that break the cycle of corruption scandals, policy paralysis and economic stasis that had come to define the reign of the incumbent Congress party.  

The 2014 elections were the prelude to India’s Modi era — a decade-long reign the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party vies to extend in this year’s national elections. To understand India in 2024, we go back to the time when a politician’s popularity lodged BJP into the corridors of Raisina Hills, transforming the nation’s political landscape.

In 2014, the BJP’s numbers reflected the success of a carefully crafted campaign, set in motion at a very opportune time. Its platform comprised three planks: developing civic and commercial infrastructure (which included combatting corruption), focusing on youth and employment, and fixing the economy. 

The lead-up to the polls was heavy with an air of resentment. Corruption scandals, including the coal block allocations and 2G spectrum scams under UPA-I, gave rise to an anti-corruption stir, triggering a series of demonstrations, marches, hunger strikes and rallies to protest the perceived endemic corruption. Under the UPA-II, GDP growth was on the lower side, struggling to reach a modest 5% per annum. Food inflation emerged as another area of concern, with 20% increase in wholesale prices and about 15% in retail prices in November of 2013. This proved fatal for Congress, which in 2013 was unable to retain the State assembly in Rajasthan. 

Revenue inflows dried up and inflation rose. Benchmark indices had suffered as well. In fact, within the first five months of the financial year 2013-14, the central government had reached 74.6% of its fiscal deficit target, compared with 65.7% a year ago, as per data from the Controller General of Accounts. Fiscal consolidation was in order, with a specified timeframe that would allow the government to cut expenditures and boost revenue. UPA began to prune out subsidies meant to be a salve to treat a global economic meltdown and free controlled prices in the energy sector. This mandated budget cuts for the UPA government’s flagship schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Act (MNREGA). 

The feeling remained in the market that a BJP-led coalition, considering Mr. Modi’s pro-business approach, would be good for them. What Raegonomics was to the U.S. in the Eighties, the ‘Gujarat Model’ became to India in the early aughts. At a rally, Mr. Modi, the vikas purush, said, “I transformed Gujarat, please give me a chance to transform India.”