NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for election victory on Tuesday (Jun 4), but the opposition said they had “punished” the ruling party to confound predictions and reduce their parliamentary majority.
Commentators and exit polls had projected an overwhelming victory for Modi, whose campaign wooed the Hindu majority to the worry of the country’s 200-million-plus Muslim community, deepening concerns over minority rights.
But for the first time in a decade, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could fail to secure an overall majority of its own, figures from the election commission projected, meaning it would need to rely on its alliance partners.
The main opposition Congress party was set to nearly double its parliamentary seats, in a remarkable turnaround largely driven by deals to field single candidates against the BJP’s electoral juggernaut.
“Voters have punished the BJP,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told reporters. “I was confident that the people of this country would give the right response.”
With more than 95 per cent of votes counted, the BJP’s vote share at 36.9 per cent was marginally lower than it was in the last polls in 2019.
Modi was re-elected to his constituency representing the Hindu holy city of Varanasi by a margin of 152,000 votes – compared to nearly half a million votes five years ago.
The election commission figures showed the BJP and its allies leading in at least 292 seats out of a total of 543, enough for a parliamentary majority.
But the BJP itself was only leading in 240, well down on the 303 it won five years ago, while the Congress had won or was ahead in 98, up from 52.
