New Delhi: India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for victory in the country’s general election count on Tuesday, but with a reduced parliamentary majority as the opposition surpassed expectations.
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.