Regional election is a big setback for India’s prime minister

MUMBAI, India – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a significant political setback Sunday in a widely watched state assembly election, losing a bitterly fought campaign to an alliance of rival parties.

The loss in Bihar, where Modi campaigned fiercely, was viewed as a rebuke of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s often divisive rhetoric and of Modi’s year-and-a-half in power, during which critics say he has failed to bring the economic reforms he promised.

The campaign in Bihar was marred by allegations that Modi’s conservative party was trying to exploit caste and religious differences – particularly between majority Hindus and minority Muslims – to appeal to voters.

Amit Shah, the BJP’s president, was criticized for saying that if the party lost in Bihar, fireworks would be set off in Muslim-dominated Pakistan, India’s regional rival.

It was the second major state election that Modi’s party lost this year, after an upstart anti-corruption party won control of the local government in the national capital, New Delhi, in February.

The winning alliance, led by the state’s two-term chief executive, Nitish Kumar, won nearly three-quarters of the 243 state assembly seats. The BJP won less than a quarter.