NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has secured 294 seats, more than the 272 seats needed to secure a majority but far less than expected, as the BJP failed to secure a majority on its own for the first time since 2014.
Narendra Modi will remain in office but with a substantially reduced mandate as he will have to form a coalition government in India with other political parties in order to secure a majority in the parliament. His governing BJP failed to win a clear majority in the parliamentary elections.
Modi’s BJP failed to secure an outright majority for the first time since the Hindu nationalist leader swept to power a decade ago, and will instead rely on coalition allies to govern.
Rights groups and critics accused Modi of ramping up rhetoric against Muslims to unprecedented levels during his campaign in a bid to mobilize the Hindu majority voters.
At his rallies, the Hindu nationalist leader referred to Muslims as “infiltrators”, and claimed the main opposition Congress party would redistribute the nation’s wealth to Muslims if it security majority in election.
However, Modi’s strategy failed to mobilize Hindu voters for the BJP, while also solidifying minority communities’ support for the opposition.
The BJP’s vote share dropped nearly one point to 36.6 percent from the last election in 2019, translating in India’s electoral system into a drop from 303 to 240 seats in the 543-member Indian parliament.
The majority of Indian voters were more concerned with India’s chronic unemployment problem rather than with the government’s ideological agenda.
For the first time in 15 years, Narendra Modi’s party failed to win the most seats in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with over 241 million population and a bellwether for national elections.
Uttar Pradesh is the heartland of India’s majority faith, with widespread support for Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda, and had for the past decade formed the bedrock of the BJP’s parliamentary strength.
But an alliance of opposition parties who had competed against each other in past polls saw BJP candidates face stronger competition from rivals, who ultimately won more than half of the state’s seats.
Modi won his seat in the state, representing the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, by just 152,000 votes — compared to a victory margin of nearly half a million votes in 2019.
Spectacularly, the BJP’s candidate lost in the constituency representing Ayodhya, despite Modi in January inaugurating a divisive Hindu temple built on the grounds of a razed mosque there.
“The opposition managed to put a sword back to him and Uttar Pradesh has shown resistance to his brand of politics,” political scientist Ramu Manivannan of the University of Denver told AFP.
The BJP’s electoral strategy was premised on increasing its parliamentary majority by gaining ground in India’s wealthier and better-educated southern states.
Modi made repeated tours through the south where he affirmed his “topmost respect” for local culture.
He also embarked on a 48-hour meditation ritual in the southern coastal town of Kanyakumari last week when the vote was nearly over.
But the prime minister’s relentless campaigning did not translate into significant gains where they were needed.
The party failed to win a single seat in Tamil Nadu state — almost as populous as Germany with 84 million people — and won just one constituency in neighboring Kerala, with a population of 35 million.
Manivannan said that “ideological resistance in the south” had played its part in the BJP’s lackluster result.
Southern voters have typically backed regional parties strongly rooted in appeals to social justice policies and opposed the BJP, and Modi’s muscular Hindu-first ideology has held little appeal.
