India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed election victory for his party and its allies on Tuesday, but the opposition said they had “punished” the governing party to confound predictions and reduce their parliamentary majority.
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) failed to secure an overall majority of its own, figures from the election commission showed, 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.
“Voters have punished the BJP,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told reporters. “I was confident that the people of this country would give the right response.”
With nearly 99 percent of votes counted, the BJP’s vote share at 36.7 percent was marginally lower than it was in the last polls in 2019.
Celebrations had already begun at BJP headquarters before the full announcement of results. But the mood at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi was also one of jubilation.
“BJP has failed to win a big majority on its own,” Congress lawmaker Rajeev Shukla told reporters. “It’s a moral defeat for them.”