News Desk :
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed election victory for his party and its allies on Tuesday (Jun 4), but the opposition said they had “punished” the ruling party by confounding predictions and reducing their parliamentary majority.
“People have placed their faith in NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for a third consecutive time”, Modi wrote on social media platform X, reports Channel News Asia.
Vote counting, which neared completion on Tuesday night, showed Modi’s alliance winning albeit with a surprisingly narrow majority.
Unlike the last two elections, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will need its alliance partners to cross the 272 majority mark in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, according to the running vote count.
Modi had set a target of more than 400 seats for his National Democratic Alliance, but it is currently leading in only about 290, according to Election Commission data about three-quarters of the way through the count.
The BJP itself was leading in 239 seats, compared with 303 at the last election in 2019.
“The BJP’s reliance on allies to form the government is a slap in the face,” said Milan Vaishnav at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank in Washington.
“At this stage, NDA allies will extract their pound of flesh, which will have an impact not just in terms of policymaking but also in terms of the composition of the cabinet. (Earlier) the BJP could dictate terms with very little regard for its coalition partners.”
Modi, a strong leader, has not had to rely on alliance partners in the past and it was not clear how easily he would cope.
The BJP’s numbers were likely pulled down by the party’s poor showing in the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, which also sends 80 lawmakers to parliament.
The party was leading in 33 seats in the state, down from the 62 it won there in 2019, with analysts saying bread-and-butter issues had overshadowed the BJP’s appeal to the Hindu majority.
A grand temple to Hindu god-king Lord Ram that Modi inaugurated in January had not boosted the BJP’s fortunes as it was expected to, they said.
The opposition INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi’s centrist Congress party was leading in over 230 seats, higher than expected. Congress alone was leading in nearly 100 seats, almost double the 52 it won in 2019 – a surprise jump that is expected to boost Gandhi’s standing.
“The country has unanimously and clearly stated, we do not want Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to be involved in the running of this country, we do not like the way they have run this country,” Gandhi told reporters, referring to Modi’s powerful number two, Home Minister Shah. “That is a huge message.”
Gandhi said Congress would hold talks with its allies on Wednesday and decide on the future course of action, when asked if the opposition would try to form a government.
The seven-phase poll began on Apr 19 and concluded on Jun 1, with more than 640 million votes cast in the world’s largest democratic exercise.
The six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, with people casting their ballots in megacities New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as in sparsely populated forest areas and in the high-altitude territory of Kashmir.
Voting was also held in searing summer heat with temperatures touching nearly 50 degrees Celsius in some parts.
Nearly 970 million people, more than 10 per cent of the world’s population, were eligible to vote. Turnout averaged 66 per cent across the seven phases, according to official data.
This was just one percentage point lower than the previous election in 2019, squashing pre-poll concerns that voters might shun a contest thought to be a foregone conclusion in Modi’s favour.