India Modi’s party emerges strongest in southern state poll
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party was set on Tuesday to win the largest number of seats in a big southern state election, giving him momentum for a re-election bid next year and opening a path for more reforms.
A government in Karnataka led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will help Modi silence critics who said his popularity had waned after the rocky adoption of a nationwide sales tax and a sudden ban on highvalue notes late in 2016.
The BJP was leading in 105 seats in the election to the 225-member state assembly, the Election Commission of India said, with the opposition Congress party leading in 75 seats.
A party must have 113 seats to form a government and the BJP will probably have to seek the backing of smaller parties.
“The result provides some reassurance to the BJP that its popularity remains intact,” said Shilan Shah, a senior India economist at Capital Economics.
“That could embolden the government to pursue reforms in future, including loosening foreign direct investment restrictions and moves towards privatization.”
If it forms a government in Karnataka, the BJP and its allies would govern 22 of India’s 29 states. A strong showing in the state, which has a population roughly that of France, allows Modi to aggressively push forward his reforms agenda without fear of political backlash.
It also gives the BJP a southern beachhead, besides its core base in India’s north and west.
In the last four years, Modi has moved to boost the economy, but shied away from politically-sensitive reforms to revamp the labour sector and land acquisition, which the World Bank called for in March.
His government faced sniping in recent weeks over soaring fuel prices, a decision to privatize state carrier Air India and a lack of jobs for millions of young workforce entrants each year.
But Modi’s victory in Karnataka, where he led the party campaign, showed he remains the top vote-getter in Indian politics, leaving Rahul Gandhi, the young leader of the main opposition Congress party, struggling.