Samajwadi Party and Indian National Congress supporters at a rally in Uttar Pradesh in May. Modi's support collapsed in Uttar Pradesh with the BJP taking just 33 of 80 seats.
Photographer: Rajesh Kumar Singh/APBillionaire-Friendly Modi Humbled by Indians Who Make $4 a Day
Indian voters are frustrated by an economic boom that has created a billionaire elite — and left 600 million residents behind.
At the start of the year, Narendra Modi hailed the opening of a huge new Hindu temple as a once-in-a-millennium turning point in India’s history. The lavish event, broadcast across the nation, was timed to generate a wave of religious fervor that would carry him in a landslide to a third term as prime minister.
But less than five months later, voters in that northern Indian district soundly rejected Modi’s party in national elections, part of a broader wave of discontent with his decade-long rule in relatively poorer parts of the country. Once seen as invincible, Modi and his Hindu-dominant Bharatiya Janata Party are now dependent on allies for the first time since he took power in 2014.