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The parliamentary election of 2024 to the Lok Sabha (the powerful lower house of the Indian parliament) opens a window into the structure, process and crosscurrents of Indian politics. India’s Lok Sabha elections are a testing ground for parliamentary democracy in India in general but more particularly to assess the role of nation, region, caste, religion and other markers of identity politics in the electoral outcome. It also provides an opportunity to dissect the ability of political parties to articulate and aggregate popular wishes in their manifestos, engage in democratic competition for power and following the election, participate in governance or opposition depending on their success at the polls. A project of this kind raises many questions: has the popular verdict in  India’s Lok Sabha elections been a vote for the nation, or is it the regional idiom that prevails? Has the verdict of 2024 added value to national cohesion, or has it been an indicator of regional diverging sentiments?

There is no clear answer to these questions, for the idea of nationhood in India remains problematic as there are deep divisions in India’s political community on this score. While, for the BJP, the Indian nation must carry the stamp of Hindu ethos, opposed to it are the whole gamut of political parties opposed to the BJP which defend a nationhood for India comprising of India’s multitude identities of caste, communities, regions, languages, among others. They prefer a territorial nationhood rather than a Kulturnation, specific to one pan-Indian cultural identity.