The shock result sparked feverish celebrations among India’s opposition parties and marked a rare setback for an Indian politician who had never failed to secure a majority in state or national elections over a 23-year political career.
As prime minister for the past decade, Modi has cultivated an image as a popular strongman and a serial winner, and most political analysts had expected him to easily brush aside India’s enervated and poorly funded opposition parties once more.
Indian stocks dropped soon after markets opened on fears that the pro-business BJP might fall short, eventually closing down 6 percent, and companies led by Gautam Adani, a billionaire seen as a Modi ally, saw as much as a fifth of their value wiped out within hours.
“The entire party structure is built around advertising around him, but the challenge this time was that they weren’t able to come up with a set of issues that they could tie around Modi,” said Neelanjan Sircar, a political scientist at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.
On the economic front, Modi also signaled that if given a strong mandate for a third term, he could push forward with labor reforms that would make hiring and firing workers easier, help local business owners, and invite foreign investment.
After Rahul Gandhi, the Congress political scion and party leader, addressed the media in the late afternoon and pushed his way through ecstatic supporters playing drums and chanting his name, the crowd began to disperse.
The original article contains 1,421 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 83%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!