UP victory: Modi set to tighten grip
NEW DELHI, March 11 (AFP) - India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked set to tighten his grip on power today with early trends from a string of state elections showing his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leading in the key battleground of Uttar Pradesh.
Polling trends on the Election Commission of India website showed the BJP storming ahead in 221 seats out of the 272 constituencies in the state where counting was underway.
Home to 220 million people, Uttar Pradesh is the biggest electoral prize in the world's largest democracy.
The party needs 202 seats to take power in the 403-member assembly where a victory will consolidate Modi's grip on national politics two years before general elections.
The results could also strengthen Modi's hand in parliament's upper house where his lack of a majority has stalled his reform agenda. The alliance between the ruling regional Samajwadi Party and beleaguered Congress party was trailing in a distant second with leads in 64 seats in the state .
In Punjab, the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party was trailing behind Congress, with results -- expected by late afternoon -- also due in the smaller states of Goa, Uttarakhand and northeastern Manipur.
Since winning the first overall majority in three decades in the 2014 general election, Modi's dominance has been largely unchallenged and he already looks well-placed for re-election in 2019.
Even the major cash shortages which followed November's shock ban on high denomination bank notes appears to have done little damage to his standing, particularly with Congress in disarray.
“If the BJP wins in UP, it will not only bolster its position but quell all the fears about the BJP and Modi's image being eroded by demonetisation,” said veteran political commentator Bharat Bhushan.
“A victory in UP will make Modi more confident... and he will be able to do what he wants to do.”
But the two biggest setbacks of his premiership came when the BJP was roundly beaten in elections for Delhi's local assembly and the state of Bihar in 2015 so Modi will not be taking anything for granted.
The multi-phase elections, which began in February, ended on Wednesday after which exit polls -- that have proved unreliable in the past -- were allowed to be published.
Nearly all predicted the BJP to come out on top in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa.
The AAP -- an anti-corruption party led by Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal -- was tipped in some surveys to win Punjab.
The only crumb of comfort for Congress -- which has led India for most of the post-independence period -- was in Punjab where initial trends gave it the edge.
Uttar Pradesh has been ruled since 2012 by the socialist Samajwadi Party whose leader and current Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav went into an alliance for the election with Congress.