He was confident of his victory before, and now there is initial confirmation: The tally of most of the votes in India's election suggests a success for Prime Minister Modi.
In the parliamentary elections in India, victory emerged for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been in office for ten years. As announced by the election commission on Tuesday, after 75 percent of the votes were counted, Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP was leading with about 38 percent, making it once again the strongest political force. However, the government alliance he leads had to accept quite large losses compared to the 2019 election.
Even after a decade in power, Modi remains popular among much of the population and is now facing a third term in the world's most populous country. The 73-year-old's opponents have been weakened by internal power struggles and politically motivated criminal proceedings. Modi's political opponents and international human rights groups have long complained of the decline of democracy in India.
According to partial results published by the Election Commission, the coalition led by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has at least 280 of the 543 seats in parliament in New Delhi. The opposition's performance is much better than in 2019, when 353 MPs from the BJP and its allies managed to enter parliament.
Modi's main political rival, the head of the capital Delhi government, Arvind Kejriwal, is in prison. He was jailed on corruption charges in March, shortly before general elections began.
Kejriwal, who denies any wrongdoing, has been released from detention to contest the election. Before returning to prison, he said: “When power becomes dictatorship, then a prison sentence is a sign of responsibility.”
Based on the findings of US think tank Freedom House, the BJP is increasingly using government institutions to take action against political opponents. Opposition and human rights groups have also accused Modi of siding with the country's Hindu majority. During the election campaign, Modi described his country's 210 million Muslim population as “invaders” and “those who have more children.” Complaints from the opposition against the head of government have no consequences.
Modi himself accused the main opposition party (INC) of wanting to redistribute his country's wealth to Muslim households. India is a secular country. According to election law, campaigns aimed at creating public opinion against certain groups of society are prohibited.
The general election in India is the largest democratic election in the world. As of Saturday, more than 968 million people had been called to vote over six weeks. The calculation is carried out using a special calculating computer. Final results are expected to be obtained the following day.
Voter turnout was 66.3 percent, compared to 67.4 percent in 2019. The slightly lower turnout was also due to the heat wave India is currently experiencing. In Uttar Pradesh state alone, at least 33 poll workers died of heat stroke on Saturday, the final day of the general election.
