India Election Results

Indian Prime Minister Modi declares victory despite a surprising defeat at the polls.

According to preliminary election results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP and its affiliated parties led, although the opposition was performing better than anticipated.

NEW DELHI: Tuesday saw the triumph announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but it wasn't the landslide he had been expecting as his party lost seats to a more formidable opposition.

Even still, after securing an unprecedented third term as head of the most populous nation in the world after a contentious ten years in office, Modi said that Indian people had "shown immense faith" in both his party and his National Democratic Alliance coalition.

"This is a triumph for the largest democracy in the world," Modi declared to the assembly at the headquarters of his party.

Early election results appeared to have given his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, and its affiliated parties about 300 of the 543 seats in Parliament, giving them a simple majority.

However, according to The Associated Press, it failed to win a majority on its own for the first time since the BJP stormed to power in 2014. The opposition outperformed predictions and won 240 seats, despite exit polls indicating that Modi's alliance was likely to win handily.

As a result, Modi, whose authority over India has risen significantly since he came to power in 2014, now needs to put together a coalition in order to hold onto power. 

That too may be in question. The leader of the opposition Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi, has hinted that he would attempt to create a coalition with two parties that were once partners of the Congress but are now linked with the BJP.

For Modi, who has a sizable following at home and among the numerous Indian diaspora citizens who hold him accountable for India's soaring economy and growing stature in the international arena, this is not how the election was expected to play out. With a 74% approval rating, Modi is by far the most popular leader in the world, according to Morning Consult.

Critics counter that Modi has increased religious tensions, especially against India's Muslim minority, and undermined human rights in the country. 

During the campaign, Modi and other BJP candidates came under fire for allegedly using hate speech and other divisive language.

Even though India is the largest economy with the greatest growth rate in the world, the country's 1.4 billion citizens still struggle to find adequate employment.

On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waved his hands in triumph as he entered the party headquarters.

Dozens of Modi supporters yelled Hindu nationalist chants and danced to drum beats outside the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. They donned scarves in the official BJP color of saffron, which is also connected to Hindu nationalism, and t-shirts that said, "I am Modi's family."

There was less jubilation inside.

The supermajority that party workers and fans of Modi had hoped for looked more and more elusive, so they were anxious and unhappy as they watched the final results on TV. Some others felt enraged.

"Some voters abandoned us,” lamented Ram Shankar Maharaj, a Hindu priest from his hometown of Ayodhya, in the northern city. In January, Modi oversaw the inauguration of a massive Hindu temple on a contentious sacred site. Maharaj had flown to New Delhi to observe the results. "They betrayed Indian tradition."

The temple-containing Ayodhya constituency was one of many that the BJP conceded on Tuesday.

We ought to have received 500 seats, Maharaj continued. India will be harmed by this. If they had passed 400, the nation would have prospered.

India's key market indices saw a significant decline on Tuesday as the results got more muddled, but they finished at record highs on Monday after exit polls indicated that Modi would win handily.

Speaking Tuesday night across from the BJP headquarters, Modi declared that his alliance was ready to take power. He repeatedly referred to and complimented the leaders of the larger alliance rather than concentrating on the BJP.

The principal opposition party, Congress, was in high spirits. At a press conference, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge declared, "This is the people's victory, and democracy's victory."

Modi's vision of India as a Hindu-first nation is now firmly ingrained in Indian politics, regardless of the outcome, which has Muslims and other minority groups concerned about how they will fare under five more years of Modi leadership.

Tasneem Fatma, a voter in Modi's home district of Varanasi, said, "We want a united India, not for Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Isai," as she left a polling place on Saturday during the final of seven voting phases.

 But an older man interrupted the 20-year-old business student Fatma, saying there was no religious split. Along with brushing off Fatma's worries about unemployment, he said, "If you are capable of the job and you are educated, you can take the job."

With about a billion registered voters and six weeks of polling, India's election is regarded as the biggest in the world. Officials faced more than only the election's immense magnitude, though.

The capital city of New Delhi has seen exceptionally high temperatures—above 120 degrees—during the voting process, which analysts believe may have contributed to lower voter turnout. According to Reuters, at least 33 people—including election officials who were on duty—died on Friday from what is believed to have been heatstroke in three states.

Heat waves in India and other parts of South Asia are become hotter, longer, and more frequent despite the fact that Indian summers are always hot. Scientists attribute this trend to climate change. During the campaign, neither the opposition nor the BJP made many statements regarding climate change.

At the White House are Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

 Given that Washington sees India as a crucial bulwark against China, Modi's dubious record on human rights may cause some awkward situations. India is a vital defense partner and a part of strategic security alliances like the Quad, which also includes the United States, Australia, and Japan, even though it is not a recognized ally of the United States. 

on a joint press conference with President Joe Biden last year on a state visit to Washington, Modi, who seldom answers questions from the media in real time, responded sharply to criticism.

"Caste, creed, age, or any other form of geographic location are not grounds for discrimination under India's democratic values," he declared.

Additionally, according to American authorities, there may have been involvement from Indian operatives in the attempted murder of a Sikh activist residing in New York last year. India disputes the claims, claiming that committing such a crime would be "in violation of government policy."

Regardless of the ultimate election outcomes in either nation, experts predict that the United States and India's relationship will only become stronger.

According to Aiyar, "China continues to be the big problem or the force influencing global realignments and alignments."