Modi Gets a Reality Check in His Home State
- Modi expected to embrace populist policies to boost poll hopes
- Result places Gandhi as key challenger in 2019 federal vote
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It should have been an easy win, but the too-close-for-comfort poll victory in his home state is expected to pressure Prime Minister Narendra Modi to embrace more populist policies as he seeks to retain power in India’s 2019 federal election.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in 99 seats in the 182-member assembly in a hard-fought election in Gujarat -- just a few seats more than the majority the party needs to govern and the BJP’s lowest tally in more than two decades. India’s Election Commission has yet to release the final tally.