Five years ago, when Mr. Modi made formal his longtime ambition of leading India, he chose as his stage and constituency Varanasi, a city of temples and gods. On Thursday, Mr. Modi was re-elected to that seat, with a victory margin of nearly half a million votes. Mr. Modi is a self-made man, rising from modest beginnings through his party’s Hindu nationalist wing to become the longest-serving chief minister of Gujarat, one of India’s largest states. There, he was known for a blend of business-friendly policies that sped development and the promotion of Hindu nationalist ideology. If he made progress in modernizing the city, the word of mouth from visitors would become a 24/7 image campaign.

Source: New York Times May 23, 2019 16:40 UTC