When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the northern city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to open a controversial Hindu temple five months ago, few of the grandees present would have guessed the state would deliver such a big surprise in the general election that wrapped up this week.

Modi’s party the BJP is licking its wounds after losing its parliamentary majority. It is set to form a coalition government once it is done horse-trading with the minor parties that make up the National Democratic Alliance, and Modi has already been congratulated on his historic third term by world leaders. However, this was not the outcome the BJP anticipated.