Turbulence alert: Will the Ghost of 1996-99 haunt India's politics again?

In the 1996-98 period, we saw three prime ministers and two governments

In about 10 months from now, the time would have come to choose a new government. Barring some miracle, the BJP will not get a simple majority but will be the single largest party in the Lok Sabha; and depending on how many seats it loses, Narendra Modi may not be willing to continue as prime minister.

After all, in 1989, when the Congress came down from 415 seats to 197, Rajiv Gandhi had said that even though it was the single largest party, the mandate was against the Congress. He had therefore decided not to form the government betting