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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party are using the publicity boost from hosting the G20 summit last weekend to kick off a busy campaign season that will culminate in national elections early next year.
The summit – in which Modi issued a unanimous statement bringing together Russia, China and the West, a series of economic deals and a series of photo ops – provided the Bharatiya Janata Party with an unprecedented platform to champion India’s aspirations for global leadership and appoint its prime minister promote it as a foreign policy power player.
Buoyed by the global spotlight, the party is now trying to translate that momentum into electoral success as Modi faces a united and reinvigorated opposition at the polls that will largely be fought on domestic and economic issues such as inflation.
India is entering a busy political season, with five state elections in the coming months and a national vote in early 2024, when Modi’s BJP seeks a third term in power.
For India’s middle class, the summit showed that “we now have a position globally,” said political commentator Neerja Chowdhury. For them, the elevation of India, which this year overtook China as the world’s most populous country and whose economy is among the world’s fastest growing, “will make a difference.”
No sooner had the G20 concluded on Sunday than the BJP started strategizing. Modi and top BJP leaders on Wednesday convened a planning meeting for the November polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling party is expected to face a strong challenge from its arch-rival Indian National Congress.
The government has also convened a surprise special parliamentary session next week, which will celebrate parliament’s 75-year history in addition to debating several pieces of legislation.
![Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) and other world leaders visit the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Ff9204afa-c9c1-4e12-a77c-e58c81f9add1.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
BJP leaders in recent days have promoted their G20 achievements in ways that analysts said left little doubt about their upcoming pitch to voters.
The summit “has been presented as a personal achievement of Mr Modi,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the author of a biography of the prime minister. “That is what the BJP will play: that Modi has vastly increased India’s prestige abroad and that Mr. Modi. . . shoulder to shoulder with the most important people in the world.”
Since taking over the G20 chairmanship this year, India has organized some 60 events in cities across the country, which the government says have helped “democratize” an otherwise routine diplomatic event through the associated interest – and investments – to spread to more remote areas.
The opposition has argued that this strategy was more about exploiting a global platform to boost the prime minister’s personal image. Ahead of the event, New Delhi and other host cities were covered in images of Modi that often resembled campaign material.
India was due to host the G20 last year but swapped with intended host Indonesia in 2023, in a move critics say was aimed at timing his presidency with the run-up to next year’s vote.
Jairam Ramesh, a spokesman for the opposition Congress, accused the ruling party of electioneering around the summit. “This is being done to distract people’s attention from important issues,” he wrote last month on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Modi’s government has even stoked controversy over whether it would seek to officially rename the country before the election, after the prime minister opened Saturday’s summit while sitting behind a sign reading “Bharat,” a Hindi-language nickname for India that the party has long preferred. Hindu nationalist supporters.
Rajnath Singh, the defense minister, invoked that divisive debate on Monday when he said Modi had “successfully demonstrated the prowess of Bharat” at the G20.
![Police officers walk past posters with the photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the first day of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F770f5976-372f-485a-a080-ab697f89cf3c.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
The BJP has shrugged off criticism of its behavior. Amit Shah, the home minister and Modi’s de facto second-in-command, told an interviewer this year: “If the G20 summit is successfully organized . . . if the opposition gets it [the credit]? Of course, the credit goes to Modi.”
While most analysts expect the BJP to form India’s next government, the party’s path to retaining power is uncertain.
Dozens of opposition parties, including Congress, formed an alliance in July – known by the acronym INDIA – that has focused its lines of attack on issues such as unemployment and Modi’s alleged ties to scandal-hit tycoon Gautam Adani.
It is also negotiating a plan to unite behind individual candidates against the BJP in general election constituencies. If the opposition manages to reach a deal, analysts say, this strategy could take away enough seats to end Modi’s parliamentary majority, forcing him into a coalition that would curb his power.
But Modi remains very popular: a poll by the American research group Morning Consult published this week showed that 76 percent of respondents in India approved of his premiership.
Santosh Desai, a branding specialist and political commentator, said that while he thought the G20 would have limited impact in state elections, at the national level it “certainly [Modi’s] chances”.
“It becomes quite a strong factor, even for those who may not have decided yet to choose someone who is strong and stable, rather than a question mark on the other side,” he said.