New Delhi, May 23 -- The man in the saffron robe sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, back to the wall of a cave framed by the Himalayas.

This was India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's latest production, traveling to a remote mountain temple with a preferred TV news crew to show the world India's leader meditating days before the end of the country's marathon general elections. As official results Thursday showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party leading in the race for the lower house of Parliament, the party already declared victory.

Modi, 68, has carefully constructed an image of himself as a pious man of the people, a would-be monk called to politics who has elevated India's status globally and transformed its parliamentary elections...