India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for victory in the country’s general election on Tuesday but with a reduced parliamentary majority as the opposition surpassed expectations.
Commentators and exit polls had projected an overwhelming victory for Mr Modi, whose campaign prioritised the Hindu majority despite the country’s 200-million-plus Muslim community, deepening concerns for minority rights.
But for the first time in a decade Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fail to secure an overall majority of its own, according to projected figures, meaning it would need to rely on alliance partners.
The main opposition Congress party was poised to nearly double its parliamentary seats in a remarkable turnaround largely driven by deals to field single candidates against the BJP’s electoral juggernaut.
With three quarters of the votes counted, the BJP’s share of 38.1 per cent was marginally higher than the polling in 2019.
The election commission figures showed the BJP and its allies leading in at least 286 seats out of a total of 543, enough for a parliamentary majority.