Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party has lost a key state legislature election, a setback for the party as it faces massive anti-government protests against a contentious new citizenship law.
According to results announced by the Election Commission of India late on Monday, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yielded power to an alliance forged among the opposition Congress party and powerful regional groups in eastern Jharkhand state, where the voting took place this month.
The election was held amid protests calling for the revocation of the citizenship law, which critics say is the latest effort by Modi’s government to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims.
Photo: AFP
BJP leaders yesterday said that the new citizenship law was not an issue in the Jharkhand election, but Congress Party leader R.P.N. Singh said the results were a snub to Modi’s party, which won only 25 of 81 state legislature seats.
The Congress party and its allies won 47 seats, ending the BJP’s five-year rule in the state.
Since December last year, the BJP has lost power in five states: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
However, Modi won a major victory for his party in May national elections. The BJP came to power in 2014, defeating the Congress party.
Modi has defended the new citizenship law and accused the opposition of pushing the nation into a “fear psychosis.”
The law allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It does not apply to Muslims.
Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to India’s streets to call for the revocation of the law, with 23 people killed in the demonstrations.
Hundreds of students yesterday marched through the streets of New Delhi to Jantar Mantar, an area designated for protests near parliament.
They walked behind a huge banner that read: “We the People of India.”
Vipul Kumar Chaudhary, a student, said the purpose of the march was to ensure that there was no discrimination on the basis of religion.
“India is a bouquet of people representing different religions. We want to preserve it,” he said.
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