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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/04/narendra-modi-loses-aura-of-invincibility-as-predicted-landslide-fails-to-materialise>
"India’s elections may return Narendra Modi to power for a third term but
Tuesday’s results did not have the flavour of victory for the strongman prime
minister.
Indeed, as the early counts of the votes began to roll in, it was clear this
was going to be one of the most humbling moments for Modi and his Bharatiya
Janata party (BJP) in over a decade.
The BJP went into this election, which began way back in April, with a
confident swagger and the slogan “
ab ki baar, 400 paar”, a target to win 400
seats – more than two-thirds of parliament, a feat only achieved once before.
Modi’s return to power, with the same if not stronger majority, was referred to
by analysts and pundits as almost an inevitability, given the carefully curated
cult of personality that has built up around the leader and his centralisation
of power over the past decade. As late as this past weekend, exit polls
projected a BJP landslide and tens of thousands of
ladoos [Indian sweets],
were prepared in anticipation of victory parties across the country.
Yet that sweeping majority has not materialised, and instead a more complicated
and diverse picture of India’s political landscape appeared. The BJP as a
singular party looks set to lose over 60 seats, bringing its predicted total
down to about 240 – not enough to form a majority on its own and making it
dependent on its political alliance partners for the first time.
While the BJP’s alliance as a whole has likely won just under 300 seats, enough
to form a majority government under Modi, it is with a far more weakened
mandate than ever before. Many of its political partners have a far less
hardline Hindu nationalist agenda than the BJP and several court support from
Muslim voters.
It is likely to make it far harder for Modi to move forward with many of his
more radical Hindu-first policies, particularly involving citizenship
registration and laws accused of directly discriminating against Muslims. There
is also now little chance of the BJP having the parliamentary votes needed to
change India’s secular constitution, which had been a potent fear among many
opponents."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
