The odds of a landslide are fading as the Modi coalition leads the Indian Election Results

Even if the opposition is performing better than anticipated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on track to serve a rare third term as the head of the most populous nation in the world.

Following a contentious ten years in office, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on track to serve an unusual third term as head of the most populous nation in the world on Tuesday, but he encountered an unexpected roadblock.

Early results seemed to indicate that his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and affiliated parties had roughly 300 of the 543 seats in Parliament, giving them a simple majority.

Exit polls had predicted that Modi’s alliance would win by a landslide, but the opposition is outperforming expectations and the BJP might not be able to secure a majority on its own, undermining Modi’s mandate.

Since taking office in 2014, Modi’s influence has progressively increased. He is well-liked both at home and among the sizable Indian diaspora in the United States and other countries, who credit him for driving India’s economy into the stratosphere and boosting its stature internationally.

With a 74% approval rating, Modi is by far the most popular leader in the world, according to Morning Consult.

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Along with inflaming religious tensions, especially against India’s Muslim minority, critics claim that Modi has undermined human rights in the greatest democracy in the world.

During the campaign, Modi and other BJP candidates were accused of using hate speech and other inflammatory language. Even though India is the largest economy with the greatest growth rate in the world, the country’s 1.4 billion citizens still struggle to find adequate employment.

Dozens of Modi supporters wore scarves the color of saffron, the official color of the BJP and a hue linked to Hindu nationalism, and danced to drum beats while chanting Hindu nationalist chants outside the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

There was little jubilation inside. The supermajority that party workers and fans of Modi had hoped for looked more and more elusive, so they were anxious and unhappy as they watched the final results on TV. Some others felt enraged.

A few electors deceived us. The Hindu priest Ram Shankar Maharaj, who had flown to New Delhi to observe the results from his home in the northern city of Ayodhya, where Modi had presided over the building of a magnificent Hindu temple on a contentious holy site in January, stated, “They betrayed Indian tradition.”

We ought to have received 500 seats, Maharaj continued. India will be harmed by this. If they had passed 400, the nation would have prospered.

India’s key market indexes saw a significant decline on Tuesday as the results got more muddled, but they finished at record highs on Monday after exit polls indicated that Modi would win handily.

The BJP’s Khemchand Sharma stated that although the party had set a “high target,” it was “happy with our own performance.”

“We’ll assess any issues that arose, fix them, and improve for the next time,” he declared.

Whatever the outcome, Muslims and other minority groups are afraid for their future under five more years of Modi leadership, as his philosophy of a Hindu-first nation has been ingrained in Indian politics.

Tasneem Fatma, a voter in Modi’s home district of Varanasi, said, “We want a united India, not for Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Isai,” as she left a polling place on Saturday during the final of seven voting phases.

But an older guy interrupted the 20-year-old business student Fatma, saying there was no religious split. Along with brushing off Fatma’s worries about unemployment, he said, “If you are capable of the job and you are educated, you can take the job.”

The conversation became more heated, and police officer

With about a billion registered voters and six weeks of polling, India’s election is regarded as the biggest in the world. Officials faced more than only the election’s immense magnitude, though.

The capital city of New Delhi has seen exceptionally high temperatures—above 120 degrees—during the voting process, which analysts believe may have contributed to lower voter participation.

According to Reuters, at least 33 people—including election officials who were on duty—died on Friday from what is believed to have been heatstroke in three states.

Heat waves in India and other parts of South Asia are become hotter, longer, and more frequent despite the fact that Indian summers are always hot.

Scientists attribute this trend to climate change. Throughout the campaign, neither the opposition nor the BJP have made many statements about climate change.

Voters who talked with NBC News had jobs as their top concern. A March research stated that those between the ages of 15 and 29, who account for 83% of India’s jobless population, should be particularly concerned about it.

Why doesn’t anybody discuss growing expenses, joblessness, the deaths of impoverished children, or the removal of trees? Fatma enquired.

These kinds of concerns have been used by India’s opposition parties, spearheaded by the Indian National Congress, to sway people away from Modi.

Recognizing the immense effort required to overcome him, the shattered opposition came together to create an alliance that soon broke down.

The BJP disputes claims made by opposition parties that the Modi administration is attempting to restrict their campaigns by detaining its leaders and blocking their finances.

Chief Minister of New Delhi and vociferous opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, was detained in March on charges of corruption. On Sunday, he was given temporary release so that he could continue his campaign. He refutes the accusations.

“A very strong, dominant BJP, which in 1984 had only got four seats in Parliament” is in charge of modern-day India,

according to Yamini Aiyar, the former CEO of the highly acclaimed Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, which has been singled out by the Modi administration for its attacks on civil society.

She claimed that the BJP has grown “creepingly authoritarian” in recent years in particular.

“Our democracy is in jeopardy,” Aiyar declared.

The non-profit pro-democracy group Freedom House in Washington states that while elections in India are usually seen as free and fair, the country’s freedom of expression is gradually being curtailed.

Among other things, it mentioned the detention and imprisonment of journalists, the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to manipulate information, and the pressure of Indian authorities on social media firms to delete government-critical content from their online platforms.

Given that Washington sees India as a crucial bulwark against China, Modi’s dubious record on human rights may cause some difficult situations.

India is a vital military partner and a component of strategic security alliances like the Quad, which also includes the United States, Australia, and Japan, even though it is not a recognized ally of the United States.

on a joint press conference with President Joe Biden last year on a state visit to Washington, Modi, who seldom answers questions from the media in real time, responded sharply to criticism.

“Caste, creed, age, or any other form of geographic location are not grounds for discrimination under India’s democratic values,” he said.

Additionally, according to American officials, there may have been involvement from Indian operatives in the attempted murder of a Sikh activist residing in New York last year.

India disputes the claims, claiming that committing such a crime would be “in violation of government policy.”

Experts predict that regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November, the US’s relationship with Modi will only get stronger.

According to Aiyar, “China continues to be the big problem or the force influencing global realignments and alignments.”

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