India elections: Modi hopeful even after no clear majority

Celebrations had already begun at the headquarters of Modi’s BJP 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.”

Stocks slumped on speculation that the reduced majority would hamper the BJP’s ability to push through reforms. Shares in the main listed unit of Adani Enterprises, owned by key Modi ally Gautam Adani, nosedived 25 per cent, before rebounding slightly.

Modi’s opponents fought against a well-oiled and well-funded BJP campaign machine, and what they say are politically motivated criminal cases aimed at hobbling challengers.
US think tank Freedom House said this year that the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents.”

The polls were staggering in their size and logistical complexity, with 642 million voters casting their ballots everywhere, from megacities New Delhi and Mumbai to sparsely populated forest areas and the high-altitude Himalayas.

“People should know about the strength of Indian democracy,” chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said Monday, calling the counting process “robust”.

Based on the commission’s figure of an electorate of 968 million, turnout came to 66.3 percent, down roughly one percentage point from 67.4 per cent in the last polls in 2019.
Analysts have partly blamed the lower turnout on a searing heatwave across northern India, with temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).