Modi’s party seen winning Indian vote
Hindu-first policies get resounding endorsement
NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi, India’s charismatic but polarizing prime minister, was headed Thursday for a landslide election victory, propelling his Hindu nationalist party to back-to-back majorities in parliament for the first time in decades.
With most of the votes counted, Modi’s stunning re-election mirrored a global trend of populists sweeping to victory.
The victory was widely seen as a referendum on Modi’s Hindu-first politics that some observers say have bred intolerance toward Muslims and other religious minorities, as well as his muscular stance on neighboring Pakistan.
“India wins yet again,” Modi exulted in a tweet.
Election Commission data showed Modi’s Bharatia Janata Party winning 158 seats and in the lead for
145 more, which would catapult the party well beyond the simple majority in the 545-member lower house of Parliament required to govern. The main opposition Indian National Congress party picked up 31 seats and was leading in 21 other contests. The final tally was not expected until Friday.
Addressing thousands of party workers, Modi urged the world to “recognize India’s democratic power.” He attributed the party’s showing to his policies aimed at improving the lot of the nation’s poor, including free medical insurance, relief for distressed farmers and a highly popular program to build 100 million toilets in a nation where basic sanitation remains a major problem.
On the campaign trail, Modi presented himself as a self-made man and labeled Congress party president Rahul Gandhi as an out-oftouch member of the elite.
Gandhi conceded defeat for his own parliamentary seat to his BJP rival in Amethi, a constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh that had for decades been a Congress party bastion. But Indian election rules allow candidates to run in more than one constituency, and Gandhi was ahead in the race for another seat he contested in the southern state of Kerala.
Even before the election commission released any official results, calls came in from around the world to congratulate Modi, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Zinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.