Nikita Sud comments on Gujarat election results and implications for Modi's BJP
Associate Professor Nikita Sud has been interviewed on WION TV about the results of legislative assembly elections held in the Indian state of Gujarat and what they might mean for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The election saw the BJP win the election but with a reduced number of seats compared to 2012, while the rival Congress party increased its seat share.
Professor Sud said the BJP had received a shock and suggested the result might lead to an acceleration in the economic populism, combined with Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), seen in Gujarat in a bid to avoid a further decline in seats.
She said that because Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat between 2001 and 2014, had personalised the election the world viewed it as test of the Indian prime minister's strength and the result suggested Modi's centralised form of politics was not invincible.
"There are chinks in the armour and the Congress for the first time is beginning to see some light through those chinks," she said.
Professor Sud's book, Liberalization, Hindu Nationslism and the State: A Biography of Gujarat, was published in 2012.
Watch the report. (Professor Sud is interviewed from around 15:20 on the clock.)