Second historic victory: A moment for Narendra Modi and BJP to savour

Mr Modi had made this claim in his last campaign rally, but most of us treated it as mere propaganda hyperbole

I wrote recently in these pages, “In the parliamentary elections…, one candidate, Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is fighting… in 543 constituencies,” (“Modi: From pariah to messiah?” Business Standard, May 7, 2019), a refrain since picked up by many others.  Mr Modi was the issue.  Such has been his command over the electoral discourse and imagination (evident even last December when the BJP lost three state elections), his victory was foretold, and the party was bound to repeat its 2014 performance.  Exit poll after exit poll indicated this five days ago, and the results