According to most polls, India’s election was a foregone conclusion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing, Hindu-nationalist alliance was expected to secure a supermajority – and with it the power to enact radical change unopposed. To Modi’s critics and opponents, India was on the fast track to becoming a de-facto one-party state. Going into this election, Modi had set a goal of winning 400 seats in the lower house of parliament, or Lok Sabha. The BJP’s inability to secure an outright majority “pricks the bubble of Modi’s authority,” wrote political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta Tuesday night.

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Persons: Narendra Modi’s, Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party wouldn’t, God, ”, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ritesh Shukla, Arathi Jerath, India’s, Arvind Kejriwal, Critics, –, ” Mehta, Sanjay Singh, “ Modi, Neelanjan Sircar Organizations: CNN, Bharatiya Janata Party, …, BJP, Aadmi Party, ‘, National Democratic Alliance, Center for Policy Research Locations: India, Lok Sabha, –, Ayodhya, New Delhi, Delhi