The Indian PM’s Bharatiya Janata Party may have missed a landslide win despite predictions, but its coalition looks set to retain power
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared victory in the parliamentary election for his party’s alliance; votes cast by over 640 million Indians were counted on Tuesday.
The Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, has a total of 545 seats; a party or coalition needs 272 to form a government.
While Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners won fewer seats than expected, together they have over 290 seats. In 2019, Modi’s party secured 303 seats alone and the NDA crossed the 350-seat threshold. This year, however, the coalition fell far short of the 400 target it had set for itself.
The ruling party faced a stronger challenge from the opposition INDIA bloc, which includes dozens of parties, which could together win over 230 seats, as some constituencies have yet to declare a winner. The Indian National Congress party, which leads the bloc, is expecting to win 100 seats, up from the 52 it won in 2019.
Addressing his party workers in Delhi on Tuesday night, Modi declared that the NDA’s election win was a “victory of the people.” He noted that before him, only the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had managed to achieve a third term in office, in 1962.
#WATCH | BJP workers welcome PM Modi at the party headquarters to celebrate the party's victory in Lok Sabha elections 2024 pic.twitter.com/RIDLxdAhf1