The Indian political landscape has undergone a “tectonic shift” after this month’s unexpected election result and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will “struggle” to survive, Rahul Gandhi, the country’s most prominent opposition politician, has claimed.
“The space in the Indian political system has been blown open,” Gandhi told the Financial Times in his first interview since the election in which the ruling Bharatiya Janata party lost its majority for the first time since Modi took power in 2014. “A tectonic shift has taken place in Indian politics.”
Modi was sworn in last week, making him India’s first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to win a third successive term. But Indian political analysts have raised questions about the stability of his coalition, which will be the weakest in a decade, forcing the BJP to rely on smaller allied parties to maintain power.