NEW DELHI—After suffering an electoral thrashing at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2014, India’s small regional and caste-based parties are back in the reckoning months ahead of the next general election.
Losses for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced in three key states on Dec. 11—blamed mainly on rural anger at weak farm prices and sluggish job creation—have opened the door for new and old alliances between the main opposition Congress and smaller parties bitterly opposed to Modi.
