Indians are finally standing up to Modi

BJP cut-out: India’s third election and its share of the parliamentary power in the next-to-leading government

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that his government had won an election, with his coalition taking more than half of the parliamentary seats.

Modi said that the National Democratic Alliance will be forming the government for the third time. “This is a great victory for democracy across the world.”

Modi’s alliance had set a very high target to win 400 parliamentary seats. According to the India’s election commission, it is in the lead with 288 seats. The coalition of opposition parties won 233 seats, despite exit polls showing a much lower tally.

On Tuesday morning, only a small group of supporters had gathered at BJP headquarters in New Delhi as initial trends showed the alliance would not get a landslide victory. The mood was somber as a man loudly sang hymn to a cut-out of Prime Minister Modi.

India’s stock market, meanwhile, plunged to a four-year low, Reuters reported, on news that the governing alliance was winning by a narrower margin than expected, which could make it harder to pass its legislation.

A Hindu temple built by a Hindu god: The victory of Modi’s Congress party in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday evening

At the time, Modi had inaugurated a Hindu temple built atop a mosque razed by Hindu nationalists in Ayodhya; the income tax department frozen Congress party’s bank accounts citing unpaid dues; and India’s top investigation agencies charged several opposition leaders for corruption or money-laundering charges.

But as the election results began rolling out on Tuesday, it was as if someone snapped their fingers and India emerged from a long period of hypnosis. Mr. Modi, who recently claimed that his birth was not a “biological” event but that he had been sent by God, failed to even deliver his party a simple parliamentary majority, leaving it unable to form a government on its own. He will likely remain prime minister for five more years. He seems to have lost the trust of the voters, and the B.J.P. project to turn India into a Hindu-nationalist state seems to have finally hit a roadblock.

In his campaign speeches, Modi accused the Congress party of conspiring to steal wealth of the majority Hindus and distribute it among the minority Muslims, whom he called “intruders” and “those with more children.” After several complaints by the opposition parties, the election commission said it would hold party presidents responsible for transgressions of its star campaigners.

The India alliance, which includes the Congress and other parties, pitched the election to be a fight for the country’s constitution. Despite one key partner defecting before the polls, the Congress and strong regional parties helped the alliance pick up more seats than predicted. A key victory was in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh, where the opposition coalition was leading in nearly half the seats it had lost to the BJP in 2019. This included Faizabad, where the controversial Hindu temple is located.

In a victory speech on Tuesday evening, that started with salutation to a Hindu god, Modi reiterated his intent to make India a developed country over the next two decades. He said that he would work with all state governments, even if he wasn’t affiliated with a party.

Earlier in the evening, the opposition Congress party said the main opposition had won the seats despite BJP’s “capture” of state institutions. The first step in preventing Modi from attempting to change it is the mandate, which was pulled out by Gandhi, according to him.

Throughout the marathon voting process, it was considered a near inevitability that Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who has galvanized his right-wing Hindu base with assaults on India’s founding values, minorities and basic decency — would win a third straight thumping victory. In the long build up to the general elections, his party promised a bigger share of parliamentary seats with the slogan: “This time, 400 plus.”

An art they have mastered, the Modi government could bribe the lawmakers in other parties, warns an author of a book.

The prime minister can be back if this happens, he says. The difference is that he is in his own party, and everyone knows that magic has waned.

For weeks, the announcement of India’s election results loomed as a moment of dread for millions of people who cherish the country’s commitment to secular democracy.