In almost a week, national politics in India will enter the penultimate year before the Lok Sabha polls of 2024. That also means that seen through national prism, 2023 is going to be far less about that year and more about 2024.
Meanwhile, the assembly polls in Karnataka next summer, and Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram next winter will be decoded for any possible clues for the big battle of 2024 at the centre. Such exercises, however, can’t forget that the state polls outcomes haven’t always been reliable indicators of how India votes in the parliamentary polls. In the last two decades, they have been less useful in foreseeing how the big battle at the centre is shaping up. But, this is unlikely to dissuade news media and a section of political analysts from pitching them as ‘big hints’ and precursors of the 2024 contest.
