Narendra Modi is set to meet his allies today to discuss forming the next government, a day after his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority in parliament in a surprisingly close election.
Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats on its own in the general election, 32 short of the halfway mark in the 543-member decision-making lower house, according to official results announced late yesterday.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP won 293 seats, more than 20 ahead of the 272 needed to form a government.
The opposition INDIA alliance, led by Rahul Gandhi’s centrist Congress party, won 230 seats, far more than was forecast. Congress alone won 99, almost double the 52 it won in 2019. The surprise jump has not just boosted Mr Gandhi’s standing, but the alliance is also discussing its own next steps and they have so far not conceded defeat.
The role of kingmaker for the next government now falls to two of the BJP’s key allies – Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu. Their parties, Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party, who have 12 and 16 seats respectively.
