Manjhi blames RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Amit Shah for Bihar debacle

Of course, no one expected the BJP to lose so badly, ” said a Sangh leader.

“This is a clear indication that Modi’s popularity may now have peaked”, said Satish Misra, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation.

Investors are already fretting over the speed of change in Modi’s India, and worries over an additional stumbling block will likely knock financial markets today.

As public debate across India shifted from the economic promises that brought Modi to power in 2014 to questions about religious intolerance under his administration, the BJP faced criticism for running a controversial campaign that attempted to divide the electorate along religious lines in a state where Muslims make up around 17% of the population. “But why, I think you know the reason better”, he said, seeking accountability being fixed and action taken against those responsible for the defeat.

There are a few parallels in Indian electoral history to the sweeping win that the Bihar’s Maha Gathbandhan (grand alliance) had posted on Sunday.

Sinha said, “these people stationed here for months together, so much money, talent and energy were spent, and what was the result?…We do not learn from the earlier defeat in Delhi”.

The New York Times in its story – titled ‘Modi concedes party’s defeat in Assembly elections for key State – said the Prime Minister “suffered a serious political setback” and it deprives the BJP of a “vital location” form which to spread its political dominance into northeast India including the large state of West Bengal.

The BJP’s Kangra MP Shanta Kumar, meanwhile, denied making any comment on the RSS call for revision of the reservation policy of the government.

The BJP defeat has also shattered the aura of invincibility built around Modi, the daily said.

It comes as Modi heads to Britain on Thursday for talks with his United Kingdom counterpart and to address a massive crowd of Indian diaspora at Wembley Stadium.

Bihari voters rejected this brand of politics, however, choosing instead the combination of social inclusion and Kumar-led development that the grand alliance seemed to represent. The people quietly took note of what Modi said, they read the reports in newspapers, they saw the news and they decided that they will teach Modi a lesson in this election for speaking like this. The NDA’s last minute alliance with Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha could secure only one seat.

This will also be up to the party to decide. “Our assumption that the three parties of the Grand Alliance wouldn’t be able to transfer their votes fully was wrong”, the BJP leader said.

The industry chambers said the focus will be on agriculture and food processing, infrastructure, manufacturing and MSMEs, ICT and e-governance, tourism, healthcare, education and skill development, and power and energy.