India small parties see big chance:

with carrying out some of the alleged abuses.

While political norms dictate Sirisena respect the high court’s verdict, the court has little recourse to force him to, legal experts said.

Soon after being appointed Prime Minister, Rajapakse sought to secure a majority in Parliament but failed. In response, Sirisena dissolved Parliament and ordered new elections, but those actions were halted by the Supreme Court. (AP)

After suffering an electoral thrashing at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2014, India’s small regional and caste-based parties are back in the reckoning months ahead of the next general election.

Losses for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced in three key states on Tuesday – blamed mainly on rural anger at weak farm prices and sluggish job creation – have opened the door for new and old alliances between the main opposition Congress and smaller parties bitterly opposed to Modi.

Most political strategists still expect the BJP to cling on to national power, albeit with a smaller majority, in an election due by May next year. But they also acknowledge this week’s results in three big heartland states have opened up the outside possibility that Congress could stitch together enough support from smaller parties to form the next government.

“At the central level, Prime Minister Modi