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Suddenly, the aura of invincibility around Narendra Modi has been shattered.<\/p>\n
In an Indian election in which his party\u2019s slogan had promised a landslide victory and Mr. Modi even repeatedly referred to himself as sent by God, the results announced on Tuesday were unexpectedly sobering.<\/p>\n
Mr. 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 B.J.P., won far more seats than any other party.<\/p>\n
But instead of a runaway win, the B.J.P. lost dozens of seats. It now finds itself at the mercy of its coalition partners \u2014 including one politician notorious for how often he has switched sides \u2014 to stay in power, a sharp reversal a decade into Mr. Modi\u2019s transformational tenure.<\/p>\n
As the results came into view, the country\u2019s stock markets plunged. Opposition parties, newly unified in what they had called an effort to save the country\u2019s democracy, rejoiced. And India, while extending Mr. Modi\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Mr. Modi took a more positive view in a statement on X declaring that his coalition had won a third term. \u201cThis is a historical feat in India\u2019s history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Mr. Modi, a generous reading of the outcome could be that only with his personal push could his party overcome its unpopularity at the local level and scrape by. Or it could be that his carefully cultivated brand has now peaked, and that he can no longer outrun the anti-incumbency sentiment that eventually catches up with almost any politician.<\/p>\n
How Mr. Modi will react is uncertain \u2014 whether he will harden his effort to turn away any challenge to his power, or be chastened by the voters\u2019 verdict and his need to work with coalition partners that do not share his Hindu-nationalist ideology.<\/p>\n
\u201cModi is not known as a consensual figure. However, he is very pragmatic,\u201d said Arati Jerath, a political analyst based in New Delhi. \u201cHe will have to moderate his hard-line Hindu-nationalist approach to issues. Perhaps we can hope for more moderation from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few doubt, however, that Mr. Modi will try to deepen his already considerable imprint on the country over the next five years.<\/p>\n
On his watch, India, the world\u2019s most populous nation, has enjoyed newfound prominence on the global stage, overhauled its infrastructure for the needs of its 1.4 billion people, and been imbued with a new sense of ambition as it tries to shed the legacy of its long colonial past.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Mr. Modi has worked to turn a vastly diverse country held together by a secular democratic system into an overtly Hindu-first state, marginalizing the country\u2019s large Muslim minority.<\/p>\n
His increasingly authoritarian turn \u2014 with a crackdown on dissent that has created a chilling environment of self-censorship \u2014 has pushed India\u2019s vociferous democracy closer to a one-party state, his critics say. And the country\u2019s economic growth, while rapid, has mostly enriched those at the top.<\/p>\n
Mr. Modi rose from a humble background as the son of a tea seller, becoming India\u2019s most powerful and popular leader in decades by building a cult of personality, spending big on infrastructure and welfare, and tilting India\u2019s democratic institutions in his favor.<\/p>\n
The ultimate goal was to cement his standing as one of the most consequential prime ministers in India\u2019s nearly 75 years as a republic and make the B.J.P. the country\u2019s only plausible national governing force.<\/p>\n
But the results on Tuesday pointed to a sharp turnaround for India\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The once-dominant Congress, long positioned at India\u2019s political center, struggled for years to find a direction and offer an ideological alternative to the B.J.P. But it and its coalition partners found traction in this election by attacking Mr. Modi\u2019s government over issues like unemployment, social justice and the prime minister\u2019s ties to India\u2019s billionaires.<\/p>\n
Last year, as Rahul Gandhi, the public face of the Congress party, sought to burnish his standing by leading long marches across India, the B.J.P. ensnared him in a court case that led to his expulsion from Parliament<\/a>. He was later returned to his seat by India\u2019s highest court, and was set to win re-election on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Speaking as early returns came in, Mr. Gandhi, 53, said the fight was not just against the B.J.P. It was also, he said, against all the government institutions that had stood with Mr. Modi in trying to hamstring the opposition through arrests and other punitive actions.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was about saving the Constitution,\u201d he said, lifting a small copy that he had been carrying with him and displaying during speeches on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n Exit polls released on Saturday<\/a>, after more than six weeks of voting in the world\u2019s largest democratic exercise, indicated that Mr. Modi\u2019s party was headed toward an easy victory. But there had been signs during the campaign that Mr. Modi was worried about the outcome<\/a>.<\/p>\n He crisscrossed the country for more than 200 rallies over about two months and gave dozens of interviews, hoping to use his charismatic appeal to paper over any weaknesses in his party. In speeches, he often veered from his party\u2019s message of a rising<\/a> India to counter accusations that he privileged business and caste elites. He also abandoned his once-subtle dog whistles targeting India\u2019s 200 million Muslims, instead demonizing them directly<\/a>, by name.<\/p>\n As things stood by nightfall, Mr. Modi would need at least 33 seats from allies to cross the 272 minimum for forming a government.<\/p>\n Two regional parties in particular 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.<\/p>\n Both parties are avowedly secular, raising hopes among Mr. Modi\u2019s opponents that their influence could slow down his race to turn India\u2019s democracy into a Hindu-first state.<\/p>\n Some of Mr. Modi\u2019s biggest losses came in India\u2019s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh in the north, with about 240 million people. His party leads the state government and had won 62 of the state\u2019s 80 seats in the national Parliament\u2019s lower house in the previous election, in 2019.<\/p>\n As counting entered its last stretch in the evening on Tuesday, the B.J.P. was leading in only 33 seats there. In his own constituency, Varanasi, Mr. Modi\u2019s victory margin was reduced from half a million last time to about 150,000.<\/p>\n The loss in Faizabad constituency, in particular, told the story of how some of the prime minister\u2019s biggest offerings had struggled to connect with voters.<\/p>\n