Modi must form a coalition after shock loss of majority

BJP’s disappointing election performance leaves India’s autocratic leader at the mercy of unreliable kingmakers’

- SHWETA SHARMA

Narendra Modi will return as India’s prime minister for a rare third term and stake his claim to form a coalition government after his allies elected him as their leader yesterday.

Mr Modi offered his resignation to president Droupadi Murmu to pave the way for the formation of a new government after a disappointing outing by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general election. The BJP failed to win an outright parliamentary majority for the first time since it swept to power in 2014. It took 240 seats, far fewer than the record 303 it won in the 2019 election.

However, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance [NDA] won 292 of the 543 seats, 20 more than the 272 needed for a majority. This means that Mr Modi will for the first time need to form a coalition government to run the world’s largest democracy with the help of regional powers, which have not been averse to shifting their loyalties in the past.