How 2018 turned out to be 'annus horribilis' for Bharatiya Janata Party

Electorally, 2018 has turned out to be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s annus horribilis, comparable only to 2015.

In 2018, the BJP’s rare successes in north-east India aside, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Amit Shah-led party. 

After its successes in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in 2014, the BJP had lost both the Assembly polls that took place in 2015, in Delhi in February and Bihar in November. The defeats forced the Narendra Modi government to replace its reforms pitch with “garib kalyan”, or welfare of the poor.

Now, 2018 has ended with a