NEW DELHI — Suddenly, the aura of invincibility around Narendra Modi has been shattered.
In an Indian election in which his party’s slogan had promised a landslide victory and Modi even repeatedly referred to himself as sent by God, the results announced Tuesday were unexpectedly sobering.
Modi, 73, is set to take up a third consecutive term as prime minister, after the Election Commission gave final confirmation early Wednesday that the parties that make up his coalition had collectively passed the majority mark in parliament. It is a feat that only one other Indian leader has accomplished, and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, won far more seats than any other party.
But instead of a runaway win, the BJP lost dozens of seats. It now finds itself at the mercy of coalition partners to stay in power, a sharp reversal a decade into Modi’s transformational tenure.
As the results came into view, the country’s stock markets plunged. Opposition parties, newly unified in what they had called an effort to save the country’s democracy, rejoiced. And India, while extending Modi’s firm hold on power, learned that there are limits to his political potency — even as he made the election, usually fought seat by seat, squarely about himself.
How Modi will react is uncertain — whether he will harden his effort to turn away any challenge to his power or be chastened by the voters’ verdict and his need to work with coalition partners that do not share his Hindu-nationalist ideology.
The results Tuesday pointed to a turnaround for India’s beleaguered main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, which had been seen by many as irrevocably weakened after big losses in the previous two elections.
The once-dominant Congress, long positioned at India’s political center, struggled for years to find a direction and offer an ideological alternative to the BJP. But it and its coalition partners found traction in this election by attacking Modi’s government over unemployment, social justice and the prime minister’s ties to India’s billionaires.
Two regional parties in particular now would be kingmakers: the Telugu Desam Party, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, with 16 seats, and the Janata Dal (United) party in the eastern state of Bihar, with 12. Both parties are avowedly secular, raising hopes among Modi’s opponents that their influence could slow down his race to turn India’s democracy into a Hindu-first state.
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