Trends in India’s election count are suggesting that prime minister Narendra Modi’s boisterous claim of winning an outright majority is falling short as the opposition INDIA bloc is performing much better than projected in the exit polls.
With trends now in from every seat, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance was ahead in around 298 - maintaining a lead of 70 seats over opposition INDIA alliance.
This would be more than the 272 seats needed to form a majority, but far short of his party’s performance in 2019.
It is lower than BJP’s expectations after Mr Modi claimed that NDA would cross 400 seats.
The INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party was projected to win between 125 and 182 seats. INDIA was shown as leading in 226 seats shortly after 11am on NDTV’s counter.
The trends after noon spooked the financial markets which had expected a hefty win for Mr Modi with stocks tanking. Markets opened down around 3 per cent this morning in an apparent response to the underwhelming BJP performance, having closed last night on all-time highs following the exit poll figures.