UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY OPPOSITION LEADER, CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Ahmad Adil
NEW DELHI (AA) – As vote count continued on Tuesday, the main opposition Congress party in India said early results showed “people’s victory” and a mandate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As of late afternoon, early trends showed the INDIA alliance led by Indian National Congress (INC) was set to win over 200 seats.
The ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), meanwhile, was on course to take around 240 seats, out of the 543 in India’s lower house, falling short of the outright majority of 272, which it won on its own in last two general elections.
The ruling alliance altogether was ahead in at least 290 seats.
“The result is people’s victory and (the) mandate is against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of INC, told a news conference.
It is a “political and moral defeat” for the ruling party, he added.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said “the country has unanimously and clearly said 'we don’t want Mr. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to be involved in the running of the country.'”
“'We don’t like the way they have run the country. We don’t appreciate the way they have attacked the constitution'. That is the huge message to Narendra Modi,” he said.
Gandhi said the opposition INDIA alliance will decide its next course of action on Wednesday.
After staying in power for 10 years, the BJP was hoping to secure over 370 seats and over 400 with the support from its alliance partners, but to the surprise of many, it failed to retain many seats in the Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra states.
The ruling party was also trailing in Faizabad, where a grand Hindu temple was built at the site of the now demolished 16th-century Babri Mosque. Modi had inaugurated the temple earlier this year.
The BJP is now dependent on its alliance members such as Telugu Desam Party, and Janata Dal (United) to form the government.
BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonawalla said the ruling alliance was "comfortably poised to form its government for the third time." “The BJP has also added and increased its vote share in 2024 as compared to 2019. Clearly this is a vote for pro-incumbency and not anti-incumbency,” he wrote on X.
Voting in India was held in seven phases, and final results are expected late on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Counting started after the end of a six-week polling process that began in April.