BJP pays for Modi's militarism with modest show in state polls.

NEW DELHI -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hardline militarist profile took a beating in two key state polls on Thursday with Maharashtra returning a weakened ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while in Haryana it fell short of a majority, which it earlier had.

In Maharashtra, the rightwing Hindu alliance of BJP and the Shiv Sena won or was leading in 158 contests in a house of 288 seats, 27 short from its previous poll tally, losing seven ministers and a deputy speaker in the bargain.

However, Modi praised the BJP chief ministers for 'winning' in both states, claiming it was not easy to get a second term.

His party president Amit Shah declared two first victories in 'Modi2.0', reference to Modi's parliamentary triumph in May this year.

The results of an abbreviated BJP clearly did not seem to endorse Modi's policy of laying a siege on Kashmir and his relentless vitriol against Pakistan.

The results also account for a poor showing on the economic front, which has witnessed job losses, industrial slowdown and agrarian crisis without a remedy in sight.

The BJP swept the two states five years ago in the wake of Modi's 2014 victory. The Congress, which is struggling with an interim president in Sonia Gandhi after Rahul Gandhi quit in despair over the 2019 parliamentary poll results, performed surprisingly well.

However, in Haryana, which has a 90- member assembly, the BJP won 40, below the half way mark while losing seven from its last tally.

The alliance of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra saw BJP-Shiv Sena alliance losing 27 seats from the previous...

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