Fired-up Modi guns for new term

new delhi — India’s mega-election announced on Sunday will see Narendra Modi run for a new term boosted by the latest Pakistan bustup but vulnerable to attacks over the economy by the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty’s latest scion.

Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping for a repeat of the 2014 contest when it decimated Rahul Gandhi’s left-leaning Congress party to win an outright majority.

The right-wing party is banking on Modi’s charisma and sharp tongue and an array of emotive issues, not least hostility to Pakistan after their tit-for-tat air strikes and aerial dogfights late last month.

Dapper Modi, 68, will also harp on his humble origins as the proud Indian tea seller’s son, contrasting with designer-stubbled Gandhi, 48, the privileged, half-Italian princeling of India’s most famous family.

But opinion polls have suggested a dip in BJP support, and even that it may fall short of the 272 seats it needs for a government on its own, in the election running from April 11 to May 19.

This could mean a hung parliament — and maybe curtains for Modi.

“If the BJP fails to win a majority on its own. Modi will lose power forever,” Mohan Guruswamy from the Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank said.

“It will the beginning of his end,” he said.

Congress, won three key state elections victories in December, suddenly making Gandhi look a lot more like a serious challenger. —

If the BJP fails to win a majority on its own. Modi will lose power forever

Mohan Guruswamy, a think-tank