India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi has won a third term in one of the world’s largest democracies’ elections. This makes him the second leader in the southern Asia nation’s history to have secured a third term after the Indian National Congress Party’s Jawaharlal Nehru who won the same seat in 1951, 1957 and 1962. His premiership, spanning 16 years and 286 days to date is the longest in India. However, before Modi came to power, India had coalition governments for 30 years.
For Modi, his win came at the cost of forming alliances to move forward with his agenda. Notably, his party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) underperformed against exit poll predictions of a sweeping victory. The BJP lost seats to a stronger-than-expected opposing coalition which united against his mixed economic record and polarizing politics.
Modi told the crowd at his party’s headquarters Tuesday, 05 June that the “victory is the victory of the world’s largest democracy,” saying Indian voters had “shown immense faith” both in his party and his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition.
India’s Election Commission officially released results on Wednesday indicating the NDA won 294 seats, more than the 272 seats needed to secure a majority but far fewer than had been expected. For the first time since his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party gained power by a wide margin over the opposition in 2014, the BJP fell disappointingly short of a majority, winning 240 seats under its banner — far fewer than the record 303 it won in the 2019 election.
Modi will need the support of other parties in his coalition — a massive blow for the 73-year-old, who had hoped for a landslide victory. He had said on his campaign trail his party would likely win 370 seats and his allies another 30 seats.
The prime minister would now have to depend on the support of key allies, including the Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state with 16 seats and Janata Dal (United), which won 12 seats in eastern Bihar state, as well as smaller groups.
According to the Times of India newspaper in an editorial, “Indian voters can’t be taken for granted. Voters have clearly indicated that jobs and economic aspirations matter. The economic message from the results is that jobs matter.”
The Congress party won 99 seats, improving its tally from 52 in the 2019 elections. Among its key allies, Samajwadi Party won 37 seats in northern Uttar Pradesh state in a major upset for the BJP; All India Trinamool Congress bagged 29 seats in West Bengal state; and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 22 seats in southern Tamil Nadu state. This won the group known as the INDIA coalition a total of 232 seats.
The BJP may now be “heavily dependent on the goodwill of its allies, which makes them critical players who we can expect will extract their pound of flesh, both in terms of policymaking as well as government formation,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“At the very least, the result pricks the bubble Prime Minister Modi’s authority. He made this election about himself,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a political commentator. “Today, he is just another politician, cut to size by the people,” he said in an article in The Indian Express daily.
In the world’s largest democratic exercise, more than 640 million votes were cast in the marathon election held over a period of six weeks. In the face of the surprising drop in the BJP’s support, challengers claimed they had also won a victory of sorts, with the main opposition Congress party and coalition which campaigned on issues of joblessness, inflation and inequality saying the election had been a “moral and political loss” for Modi.
“This is public’s victory and a win for democracy,” Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge said. However, Modi pledged to make good on his election promise to turn India’s economy into the world’s third biggest, from its current fifth place, and not shirk with pushing forward with his agenda despite the setback.
He said he would advance India’s defence production, boost jobs for youth, raise exports and help farmers, among other things. “This country will see a new chapter of big decisions. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he said. An indication that many of the Hindu nationalist policies he’s instituted over the last 10 years will also remain in place.
Congratulatory messages for Modi from leaders of regional countries and around the world including neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan are coming, while the White House commended India for its “vibrant democratic process.”
In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape, bringing Hindu nationalism once a fringe ideology in the country into the mainstream leaving the country deeply divided. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world. His critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics has given steam to high levels of intolerance while the economy, one of the world’s fastest-growing, has become less equal.
Shunning critical expectations of the citizenry including the economy, job creation and combating India’s vast number of people living in poverty.
Rahul Gandhi, the main face of the opposition Congress party, said he saw the election numbers as a message from the people. “The poorest of this country have defended the constitution of India,” he told a news conference.
Modi’s popularity has outstripped that of his party’s during his first two terms in office, and he turned the parliamentary election into one that more resembled a presidential-type campaign with the BJP relying on the leader’s brand. Many claimed he was not only the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of the election.
Under Modi’s government, critics say India’s democracy has come under increasing strain with strong-arm tactics used to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and says democracy is flourishing.
Economic dissatisfaction has also brewed under the prime minister. Stock markets did reach record-highs, but youth unemployment increased significantly, with a microscopic portion benefitting from the wins. Underscoring the campaign piercing pitfalls, as Narendra Modi anted polarizing speeches that targeted Muslims at 14% of the population to please his Hindu majority base.
SOURCE: Associated Press
