BENGALURU — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s carefully built image of invincibility is facing its toughest test yet, analysts say, after his government backed down in the face of youth-led protests over exam irregularities and jobs prospects.

The government’s retreat marks a rare reversal for a leader whose brand has for more than a decade projected strength and an unwillingness to back down.

Demonstrations led by the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement last week spread from New Delhi to cities nationwide, forcing the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The government also agreed not to prosecute protesters detained during the unrest, among other concessions.

Analysts say the climbdown, ahead of key state elections next year, is one of the few occasions public pressure has compelled Modi, 75, to backtrack since he took power in 2014.

“The resignation is definitely a surprise, because it is not in Mr Modi’s temperament to take a back step,” analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who has written Modi’s biography, told AFP.

Mukhopadhyay called the reversal the “biggest possible hit” to “brand Modi” since he rose to prominence as Gujarat’s chief minister in 2001.

“Twenty-five years of brand building, a lot of it has been very heavily damaged,” he said.

“I am not very sure whether he will be able to recover (from) it immediately.”