Modi’s Hindu nationalist party BJP has governed India as part of the NDA coalition over the past decade, but this is the first time under his leadership that the party has required support from its regional allies to form a government.
“This alliance of ours reflects India’s spirit in its true sense,” Modi remarked after the BJP and coalition members endorsed him as their prime ministerial candidate. “We were neither defeated nor are we defeated … it was an NDA government in the past, still is and will be,” he added.
