India's Surprising 2024 Election with Yogendra Yadav

In this week’s episode, we speak with renowned public intellectual and political activist Yogendra Yadav about India’s 2024 national election. We’ll discuss the BJP’s surprising losses, the continued dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the shifting political landscape, including the rise of lower caste support for Hindu nationalism. Yogendra shares his thoughts on the erosion of Indian democracy and how a new form of republican politics can help revive its original constitutional values.

Host Sanjay Ruparelia sits down with Yogendra Yadav to discuss the political shifts that have defined India leading up to the 2024 Indian national election. Despite predictions of a sweeping victory, Narendra Modi’s BJP experienced significant losses, forcing it to form a coalition government. Yadav discusses Modi’s continued popularity despite setbacks over the past decade and shifts in voter concerns from national issues to local ones. The episode breaks down what the election means for the future of Indian democracy. 

Host: Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair and Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Guest: Yogendra Yadav, a public intellectual and political activist. He is currently the national convener of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, a campaign to protect and promote constitutional values and democratic institutions in India. 

Background Reading: 

Yogendra Yadav’s Making Sense of Indian Democracy: Theory in Practice

Suhas Palshikar, K.C. Suri and Yogendra Yadav’s Party Competition in Indian States: Electoral Politics in Post-Congress Polity 

Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yadav’s Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies