Christians in India joined other minorities in welcoming the results of the country’s general election, which deprived the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of its majority.
India’s eighteenth general election – the largest democratic exercise in history with almost 620 million votes cast – saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party fall short of a simple majority in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, forcing it to seek coalition partners.
“I am happy that democracy is thriving in India. It shows that the country is vibrant, and people are politically conscious and are voting rightly,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias told the Crux news agency.
The BJP won 240 seats, 63 fewer than in 2019 and well short of the 272 for a majority, although the coalition it leads, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), secured a parliamentary majority with 293 seats. During the campaign, Modi had boasted the BJP would win 370 seats and that his coalition would win over 400.
Christians largely supported the more secular-minded coalition led by the Indian National Congress, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) incorporating regional and ideological rivals of the BJP. The INDIA coalition won 232 seats, with 99 for Congress and 133 for its allies.
In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with 241 million people, the BJP lost almost half its traditional support base, indicating disaffection with Modi’s polarising policies amid widespread economic hardship.
A.C. Michael, coordinator of the United Christian Forum said that the Christians who had prayed for a change of government would feel relieved by the result. He said that under the BJP’s majority government persecution of Christians had escalated dramatically, reaching a record 731 incidents of hate crimes last year.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said the election was a “significant event” that demsotrated the strength of the country’s democratic ethos and the “unwavering adherence to constitutional values in its seventy-fifth year as a sovereign republic”.
Congratulating Modi on his victory, the bishops appealed to his government to uphold constitutional values, ensuring justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity for all citizens.
“Be inclusive, transparent, and committed to the welfare of all sections of society, particularly the marginalised and vulnerable,” the CBCI statement said.
However, others expressed concerns that a third consecutive term for Modi – equalling the record of the founding premier Jawaharlal Nehru – would still threaten Christians. There was also alarm at the BJP’s first ever victory in Kerala, where Christians make up 18 per cent of the electorate.
Fr Stanley Kozhichira, president of the communications network Signis Asia, said the result could lead to further attacks on Christians.
“I don’t see any drastic changes taking place. Persecutions may continue, situations may get worse. Hindu hardliners may want to take revenge for BJP’s poor show at the hustings,” he told The Tablet.
“Even though a Syro-Malabar Catholic, George Kurian, has been made a federal minister, I don’t think he will be able to do much,” he said. Kurian, a former vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, is currently the vice president of the BJP’s Kerala unit.
Fr Kozhichira attributed BJP’s success in Kerala to the philanthropy of Suresh Gopi, who won the Thrissur parliamentary seat at his second attempt. The popular Malayalam film actor has been helping the poor and marginalised in the area continuously for the past decade.
“I don’t think he was backed by the Church or Christians as such because had it been the case, Gopi’s winning margin would have been much higher,” Fr Kozhichira said.
However, according to the data released by research institute Lokniti-CSDS, the NDA made significant advances among Christian voters but lost support among Sikhs. Support for the coalition grew among Christians from 16 per cent to 28 per cent, while support for the INDIA coalition declined sharply.
According to the survey, Sikh support for the NDA fell from 31 per cent in 2019 to just 10 per cent in 2024. Muslims’ support for the Congress increased from 33 per cent in 2019 to 38 percent in 2024.
Fr Kozhichira did welcome the obstacle the election would pose to BJP attempts to introduce a Uniform Civil Code. This would apply regardless of religion, removing legal protections for Christian practices related to marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption. He said other parties in the NDA could oppose the introduction of the code.
Other commentators criticised the Church’s attitude towards the election. In a public discussion for the Institute for the Study of Asian Catholics (ISAC), the Jesuit human rights activist Fr Cedric Prakash said the election “called on us to do much more” to oppose Modi’s “extremely brutal, extremely violent regime”.
He said that the Church had a “compound mentality” and were not “collaborating sufficiently” with civil society groups opposing the BJP’s divisive policies. Catholics must “take our rightful place” in Indian politics, he said.
Fr Michael Sebastian SVD told the ISAC discussion that Christians did not know “what kind of game [the new government] are going to play”, but said the Church should “be a pressure group” to defend the constitution.
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