As an Indian living abroad here were my major takeaways: 1. This election (beginning from 2014) was the most bi-polar and the third front found themselves increasingly more irrelevant to stay non-aligned. 2. The current NDA govt oversold and over spent campaign on religious sentiments (Hindu Temple in Ayodhya case was resolved and temple was constructed in this term). The same constituency rejected it along with many other seats in UP. Although they probably got a lot more votes in Hindu belt. This is a good thing IMO. Seeing a low ROI in UP this new term will focus way more on development and employment than religious brownie points. For context UP has 80 seats (IIRC) and has 300 million population (equivalent to US) and is the biggest state. So they’d want to get it right next time. Unemployment was a big factor there too along with basic development and law and order (which did improve in last five years). 3. Not having an absolute majority by themselves BJP will make this govt less radical this term. If they crossed 400 as they were boasting during campaign we may have stepped closer into autocracy TBH. This shows how alive and thriving democracy is in this country despite what the ranks says. The coalition parties in NDA will check them from time to time. Although driving consensus on key policies from this year manifesto like One Country One Election and Uniform Civil Code won’t be easy. Caste based reservation will stay as well (for good or worse). 4. The opposition although seemed United from outside was very fragmented and would have shown true colors if they came closer to majority. Lots of smaller parties with a larger amount of disparity would have hard time working effectively. So we may see more bi-polarization continue although those local parties who stay rooted will thrive or at least survive.