The people of India have rejected Narendra Modi's majoritarian Hindu politics. Even if Modi's coalition returns him to power, his message has to change.
Despite his reluctance to concede defeat, the results of the Indian general elections are a major setback for outgoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His party, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), has failed to secure a majority on its own.
The BJP has heavily lost ground in its traditional stronghold states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, with a combined swing of 57 seats against it across the four regions.
Electoral loss in these battleground states, along with the massive resilience of regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, have delivered a resounding disappointment to the BJP.
The BJP's campaign was centred around Modi — every government welfare measure was packaged as “Modi’s guarantees” and the Prime Minister put himself at the front of everything the BJP did, even at the cost of eclipsing other party candidates.
It didn't work.
Neither did Modi’s toxic campaign against Muslims, dubbing them “infiltrators” and “those who produce more children”, nor did his labelling of opposition parties as Muslim “appeasers” turn the tide towards him.
Read Full Story here - https://theprobe.in/elections/modis-grip-on-power-slips-with-resounding-personal-defeat-4746538