evidence: The Karnataka elections was a national spectacle, at least in the English media. But, realistically, why should a voter in say, West Bengal or Bihar care about state elections in Karnataka? For one, all elections have now been ‘nationalised’, due to the inordinate amount of time that Prime Minister Modi spends on elections and campaigns. Second, all elections, even bye elections, are now being perceived as a harbinger for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Can performance in state elections portend performance in the subsequent national election? Empirical evidence shows that state elections can indeed be a good proxy of at least the trends for national elections, if not the actual levels of performance. [...] However, voter behaviour in state elections exhibit a strong overlap with voter behaviour in national elections. As we know, national elections are fought for Lok Sabha seats. Every Lok Sabha seat is an aggregation of a fixed number of state assembly constituencies. So, an analysis of recent performance in state elections should present an interesting insight into trends for the next national election in 2019. What does it foretell for the BJP? [...] According to this analysis, the BJP is losing Lok Sabha seats and at a rapid pace. After the recent Karnataka election, the BJP’s imputed tally of Lok Sabha seats is down to 233, from the 282 it won in 2014