'Acting like colonial rulers' How BJP lost in heartland

It was less than six months ago that Narendra Modi walked solemnly through the ornate surroundings of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and one of its most politically crucial.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen, Aakash Hassan

His appearance in the holy city to inaugurate the newly constructed Hindu temple, built on the ruins of a mosque demolished two decades earlier, was cast as the pinnacle of the prime minister's decade in power the crowning glory of his Hindu nationalist agenda and his ticket to a third term in office.

But on Tuesday evening Modi faced a rude awakening. The losses for Modi's Bharatiya Janata party were particularly heavy in Uttar Pradesh, long considered the BJP's bastion - and nowhere more so than in Ayodhya.

Few could believe that a city that had become so closely aligned with Modi's agenda could reject his party. Yet the frustrations that led to the BJP losing the Faizabad seat are ones reflected across the state: rampant unemployment, stagnant wages and unaffordable inflation.