Why winning UP Assembly election will strengthen Modi's populism

At a time when voters globally are turning to populists, Modi is sensing the mood and repositioning

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses an election campaign rally in Allahabad (Photo: Reuters)

Ruchir Sharma | NYT Varanasi

Last Updated : Mar 13 2017 | 1:31 PM IST

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is a mesmerizing orator, in the way of a talk-show host with an acerbic tongue, and this month a campaign crowd of more than 50,000 showed up in Deoria, a hardscrabble town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, to hear his story. They knew and loved the part about how this son of a tea seller rose through the party ranks with no help from family connections. But the rest of his rags-to-power tale is changing fast.

Mr. Modi took office in 2014 billing himself as a pragmatic business reformer who could restart economic growth in

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