Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : Politics 2025 — the year of BJP dominance, shifting Opposition fortunes and Its Impact and why it matters right now.
Only two Assembly elections were held during the year, but politically 2025 was an eventful year marked by intensity, strong opposition challenges, and a common theme—the continued dominance of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that, midway, seemed to set the tone of the rest of India’s electoral cycle till the General Elections in 2029.
The two Assembly elections in Delhi and Bihar, a rather unexpected polls to choose a new Vice President of India, and a surprise saffron win in the local bodies’ elections in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a “watershed moment in Kerala’s politics”.
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It was a year of strategic gains for the saffron side—one of the six currently recognised parties which include the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), the Communist Party of India (CPI), and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Despite tough resistance from opponents—Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, and Congress and a strong regional ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, the BJP remained a much more cohesive political force, a behemoth in Indian politics, thanks to its strategic planning, scale, influence, and dominance.
In Bihar, the BJP consolidated its position as the leading force in the NDA, weakening its rivals and becoming the most successful party in Indian politics in 2025, despite a narrower 2024 Lok Sabha victory. Despite tough geopolitical, regional and domestic challenges, Prime Minister Narendra Modi navigated the second year of his third term in politics with ease, putting to rest all speculations about strained ties with the party’s ideological fountainhead—the RSS.
Whether it was bringing the BJP back to power in Delhi after 27 years this February, winning 48 of the 70 Assembly seats and ending AAP’s decade-long rule in the capital state, or a very decisive NDA sail in Bihar, the results proved that the relationship with the Sangh was very much on track. In Delhi, the saffron vote share went up by more than eight per cent, and several senior AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, lost their constituencies.
The scenario was repeated in Bihar in November, where the BJP recorded its best-ever performance, winning 89 seats in the 243-member Assembly. Along with JD(U)’s 85 seats, the NDA landed a commanding 202 seats. Despite failing health, multiple-time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated his position in Bihar politics that it was impossible to form a government in the state without his JD(U).
Nationally, the BJP continued to leverage its Hindutva ideology, carrying forward its 2024 Lok Sabha momentum into 2025 through strategically-framed legislation like the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, that replaced the UPA-era MGNREGA—a move that triggered multiple objections, including over its acronym — VB-G RAM G Bill, its ideological positioning, and the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name.
As part of the INDIA bloc, the Congress had doubled its Lok Sabha tally to 99 seats in the 2024 general election, signalling a revival under the new Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, but 2025 proved to be less than a mixed bag for the grand old party. Apart from electoral disappointments in Assemblies, the party continued to battle the mid-term leadership crisis between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar. The situation remains unresolved even as the year ends.
After Punjab, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka was yet another Congress-ruled state witnessing mayhem amid local rivalries, putting a question mark on what the party “High Command” was thinking. Why was it letting the issue fester in a key state, among the only three under the Congress rule, along with Telangana and Himachal Pradesh? Facing strained ties with an important constituent of the INDIA bloc—the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in poll-bound West Bengal—much to its embarrassment, the Congress also battled dissenting notes from senior leaders like Shashi Tharoor and Digvijaya Singh.
The Congress tried to capitalise on anti-incumbency sentiments and sharpened its narrative around the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 2025, but its allegations of “vote chori” failed to deliver a decisive counter to the BJP in Bihar. Rahul Gandhi’s protests, accusing the ECI of “vote chori” (vote theft) to benefit the BJP, failed to impress voters. Meanwhile, now there is this buzz of a bigger and better role for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is emerging as a more “approachable, affable, and effective” person than her brother.
In Maharashtra, the coming together of Thackeray cousins—Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray—ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections left the Maha Vikas Aghadi fractured, and the remaining two MVA constituents—the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar (SP) faction and the Congress—were left to fight out against each other in the polls to the richest civic body.
The year also surprised with a rare Constitutional moment—the vice-presidential election in September following the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on health grounds. NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan, a former Maharashtra Governor and RSS veteran, sailed through with 452 first-preference votes against opposition candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy, who got 300 votes.
The only saving grace for BJP’s rivals—the 152-vote margin—was the narrowest in a vice-presidential election since 2002.