PM Modi equals record feat of 3rd straight term as challenges await

Prime Minister Narendra Modi scripted history on Sunday as he took the oath of office for a third straight term, becoming the first non-Congress leader and second after Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve the feat that few thought possible for a BJP leader until he shook up national politics in 2014. His third term, which always appeared inevitable, did not come with the massive mandate he and his party had been claiming with their typical bravado, as the Congress and its allies in the INDIA bloc fought a doughty rearguard battle to shock the BJP in its strongholds like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is, however, a tribute to his towering political presence that the BJP's third-best tally of 240 seats is being seen as a disappointment by the party's ardent supporters and projected as a "moral defeat" by the Congress whose own tally of 99 seats, its third worst, is being hailed by the opposition party. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has won 293 seats, which Modi has noted is the .