The Modi majority fallacy

The security of having a clear BJP majority has polarised Indian society

India is well and truly in the election mode. The cut in diesel and petrol prices is a clear giveaway. Predictably, the battle lines are getting drawn with talks of a possible grand alliance among the opposition parties. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which secured a stunning majority on its own in the Lok Sabha in 2014 — the first such instance since the start of economic liberalisation in the early 1990s, seems to be approaching the 2019 elections with the question: If not Mr Modi, then who?

Presumably, the BJP’s argument is that a coalition