Ayodhya

Minorities in Bangladesh were targeted in 1992 after a Hindu mob tore down the Babri mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya.

“A key takeaway from the election,” Mr Bose says, “is that the grand new Ram temple in Ayodhya city wasn’t enough for the BJP to win.”

The party had banked on the Ram Mandir temple to be their trump card, with Mr Modi presiding over the opening of the unfinished temple in Ayodhya with much fanfare in January.

In January, Modi inaugurated a grand temple to the Hindu god Lord Ram in the northern city of Ayodhya, considered to be the god’s birthplace.

To his Hindu nationalist base, Mr Modi delivered on key manifesto promises: revoking the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir, building the Ram temple in Ayodhya and implementing a controversial citizenship law.