A head of India’s budget on February 1st, Narendra Modi asked Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, to bless the poor and the middle class. The prime minister’s request for divine intervention mingled public spirit with political self-interest: frustration about economic growth and joblessness contributed to Mr Modi’s loss of his outright majority in elections held last year.

Millions of people in the Indian capital braved "very poor" air quality on Wednesday to vote in a state election in which prime minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP party sought to unseat a popular opposition leader.