India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for victory in the country’s general election count on Tuesday, but with a reduced parliamentary majority as the opposition surpassed expectations.

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) could fail to secure an overall majority of its own, figures from the election commission projected, 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.

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With just under 90 percent of the votes counted, the BJP’s vote share at 37.3 percent was marginally lower than it was in the last polls in 2019.

The election commission figures showed the BJP and its allies leading in at least 288 seats out of a total of 543, enough for a parliamentary majority.

But the BJP itself was only leading in 244, well down on the 303 it won five years ago, while the Congress was ahead in 99, up from 52.

Continue here: AFP