India election results: Modi heading for landslide win

Narendra Modi looked set to sweep back into power on Thursday as initial results in the Indian election showed that his party and its partners were cruising towards a majority.

After a mammoth six-week election in which over 600 million people voted, all the results were tallied on Thursday and within hours the TV networks had predicted a win for Narendra Damodardas Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reports the Telegraph.

The BJP and its partners form the National Democratic Alliance and initial counting showed they were on course for more than 300 seats, far above the 272 required for a majority in the Lok Sabha – India's lower house of parliament.

"It’s a huge mandate for positive politics and the policies of Narendra Modi," said GVL Narasimha Rao, a BJP spokesman. "It’s a huge win for India, we are humbled by the magnificence of this victory."

While these are provisional figures and the eventual seat allocation may alter, the overall trend was based on data from the official counts.

The BJP alone was set to secure more than 280 seats, according to several networks including NDTV, News18 and Republic TV, only the second outright majority by a party in 30 years – the last being in 2014, when Mr Modi came to power.

The result reinforces Mr Modi's immense popularity and vindicated what at times was a belligerent campaign by several parties, with the focus heavily on the economy, national security, and from the BJP's perspective an affirmation of its underlying ideology of Hindu nationalism.

The main opposition Congress party was heading for a better performance than its nadir in 2014, but early results suggested it would get at least 50 seats. With its partners it makes up the United Progressive Alliance, which was predicted to hit the 110 mark.

Confirmed results will come in via the Indian Election Commission throughout the day, but the overall trend was unlikely to change.

With some of the BJP's critics accusing it of making India a more divisive country, particularly for Muslims and other minorities, many are asking what happens next for India.

Professor Santosh Kumar Rai, of Delhi University, said: “Certainly a second term means an ideological victory, even if it is more a personality cult. With a [BJP] majority, a rightist agenda with all the institutions of the state under its control, the party will be more likely to convert India into a majoritarian state.

“Law, education and culture will be the major areas expecting a paradigm shift. But foreign and Finance policies will continue as they are going on now.”

The election has been the biggest democratic exercise in history with an electorate of 900 million, more than 1 million polling booths, seven phases of polling, seven national parties and dozens more regional parties vying for seats in the New Delhi parliament.

The projected win by Modi and the BJP has surprised even the most hardened political analysts, with the consensus being that they would be returned to power but with a reduced majority.

Kamruzzaman