What has occurred in India attests to the reality of coalition politics, particularly coalition governance. Naturally, pan-national parties, such as the BJP, expect to govern exclusively or largely on their own. The same is true of the Congress Party, the party of Indian independence, which ruled the country from the federal Centre for long stretches before its hegemony was challenged by regional parties at the state level, and ultimately by the emergence of the BJP as a rival at both the federal and state levels. Now, the BJP is tasting the fruit of the same
The results of the Indian general election, which were declared this month, came as something of a shock for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Accustomed to landslide victories in the two previous general elections, which had given Modi ample latitude to shape parliamentary and policy outcomes, the party was taken aback when it failed to secure a parliamentary majority on its own this time because of an unsuspected upsurge of popular support for the opposition bloc. The results left Modi with no option but to seek the help of coalition partners in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
