India’s Modi sworn in for third term after election setback
Raw StoryIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in on Sunday for a third term after worse-than-expected election results left him reliant on coalition partners to govern. Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ruled outright for the past decade but failed to repeat its previous two landslide wins this time around, defying analysts’ expectations and exit polls. Flanked by top BJP officials and party leaders of his coalition, Modi vowed in a ceremony marking his formal assumption of power to “bear true allegiance” to the constitution. Senior opposition leader, Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, condemned the “gruesome terror attack”, saying that Modi’s “chest-thumping propaganda of bringing peace and normalcy… rings hollow”. At the same time, Modi’s chief rival Rahul Gandhi was nominated on Saturday to lead India’s opposition in parliament, after he defied analysts’ forecasts to help the Congress party nearly double its parliamentary numbers.