India’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has clinched India’s general election.
The alliance has secured at least 274 seats, surpassing the 272-seat threshold required to form a government.
This election, the largest in the world, unfolded over seven phases across six weeks, with nearly a billion registered voters participating.
Despite the NDA’s victory, Modi’s BJP has lost its outright parliamentary majority.
Projections indicated the BJP will conclude the election with around 272 out of 543 seats, falling short of the 400-seat target Modi had ambitiously set during his campaign.
Prime Minister Modi celebrated the NDA’s victory at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, expressing gratitude to voters and pledging to tackle corruption and poverty in his third term. “I will do everything to eradicate corruption from the very root,” Modi assured in his speech.
The opposition coalition, known as INDIA, exceeded expectations by securing 193 seats, with notable success in the southern regions of the country.
Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party, considered Modi’s primary adversary, interpreted the results as a repudiation of Modi’s constitutional reform plans.
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Throughout the election period, opposition figures voiced concerns about an uneven playing field, citing incidents of leader arrests and claims of frozen bank accounts among certain parties.
The BJP has confirmed 226 seats independently, while the opposition INDIA alliance holds 193 seats.
