India election results 2024 live: PM Modi claims ‘biggest victory in the world’ despite BJP not expected to win majority

The United States has commended the Indian government for completing major electoral work.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby praised the Indian people for expressing their wishes and “engaging in a very robust democratic process.”

He said the United States looks forward to seeing the final results.

Addressing supporters at party headquarters in New Delhi as vote counting continued, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed his National Democratic Union (NDU) had won “the biggest victory in the world”, even as projections showed his BJP party had won a lower-than-expected vote share and failed to secure a majority.

“From the bottom of my heart, I am very happy today,” PM Modi said, adding: “Today’s victory is the biggest in the world. This is the biggest democracy in the world and this is a victory for this democracy. This is a victory for the people of India.”

Smriti Irani, the BJP’s prominent Minority Affairs Minister who famously defeated Rahul Gandhi in the Congress stronghold of Amethi in 2019, lost her seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Irani lost in the Amethi constituency to Kishori Lal of the Indian National Congress by more than 167,000 votes.

Irani admitted defeat and wrote to X, “Such is life.”

According to the Election Commission of India, Indian National Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi won the Rae Bareli elections by a margin of about 400,000 votes.

Gandhi also won handily in Wayanad in Kerala, defeating Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India.

He will now have to choose whether to give up his seat in Uttar Pradesh or Kerala.

“I cannot hold on to both seats but I am yet to decide which one to give up,” the 53-year-old was quoted as telling NDTV earlier.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked voters in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, claiming them for their “exceptional support” and “landslide victory” respectively.

Spokesmen for two main regional allies in Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition said they would support him as India’s next prime minister, after his party was shown to be falling short of a majority.

Despite speculation that opposition parties were also in touch with Modi’s coalition partners, the Telugu Bharatiya Janata Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United) said their pre-election coalition with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained intact and would form the next government.

“The TDP has been in alliance with the NDA since before the elections and will continue to do so. There is no doubt about that,” TDP politician K. Ravindra Kumar told Reuters. “PM Modi and Mr Naidu have congratulated each other.” Party spokesman Jyothsna Tirunagari added: “The TDP has always shared a vision with PM Modi and he continues to be our prime ministerial face.”

Andhra Pradesh-based leader N. Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP is currently the second-largest party in Mr. Modi’s coalition after the BJP. Mr. Naidu aligned himself with the opposition in the last election. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) has frequently switched sides but rejoined Mr. Modi’s coalition in January.

“We have formally joined the NDA coalition and will take part in forming the government,” JD(U) spokesman Abhishek Jha told Reuters. Asked whether the party would back Modi as prime minister in the NDA, he said “of course.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed voters’ “reveal of confidence” in his National Democratic Alliance party for a third consecutive term as a “historic achievement” in Indian history.

Trends in the ongoing election tally show Prime Minister Modi’s NDA coalition performing well below expectations, while the opposition Indian Alliance is doing much better than exit polls predicted.

Indians faced a choice this election season: support Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an unprecedented third term, or choose another option.

Rahul Gandhi, scion of one of India’s most prominent political families, is often mentioned as a possible alternative.

Though he is not the party’s official leader, Gandhi is a key figure in the Indian National Congress, the main opposition to Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

My colleagues Alpan Rai Please see here for the detail:

Narendra ModiIndia’s prime minister is set to return to parliament after winning national elections in his constituency of Varanasi. After initially trailing the front-runner, Ajay Rai of the Indian National Congress, he made a strong comeback by winning 612,970 votes, beating his rival by 152,513 votes.

Amit Shah: The Home Minister won the election in his home state of Gujarat by a margin of 744,716 votes.

Shah, the BJP candidate in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency, secured 1,010,972 votes while his closest rival, Sonal Ramanbhai Patel of the Indian National Congress, got 266,256 votes.

In Gujarat, Shah and Modi’s home state, the BJP is expected to win a landslide victory, with 25 of the 26 assembly seats.

Kangana RanautBollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, who made her political debut as a BJP candidate from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, has defeated Indian National Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh.

She received 537,022 votes while her Congress rival was trailing by 74,755 votes.

Rahul Gandhi: Rahul Gandhi of the opposition Indian National Congress party won in Wayanad in Kerala. Gandhi defeated Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India by a large margin of 364,422 votes, for a total of 647,445 votes.

Gandhi, the face of the Congress-led coalition, won 687,649 votes in the Rai Bareli constituency, giving him a significant lead over rival Dinesh Pratap Singh.

In India, people can run for multiple seats and must choose only one seat to take office as a member of parliament.

Shashi Tharoor: Rajiv Chandrasekhar, a senior Indian National Congress leader and former UN diplomat, fought hard to beat his Bharatiya Janata Party counterpart in the race for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, winning the seat for a third consecutive term.

Tharoor, who was initially lagging behind, polled 3,58,155 votes and won by a slim margin of 16,077 votes, and was declared the winner.

Akhilesh Yadav: For the second consecutive election, the BJP seemed unable to catch up in Uttar Pradesh. After the inauguration of the Ram temple, the party was hopeful of securing at least 60 of the total 80 assembly seats in the state.

But Hindu nationalist parties are set to receive a major shock, mainly from Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, which is leading in 35 seats and has been declared the winner in three constituencies, while the BJP is leading in 26 seats and has won six.

Yadav himself is leading by 1,70,076 votes against BJP’s Subrat Pathak.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lost its seat in Ayodhya constituency, a highly symbolic loss after the prime minister inaugurated a grand but controversial Hindu temple there in January.

The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Lal Singh, lost to a local Samajwadi Party candidate, Singh’s election agent, Kamlesh Srivastava, told The Associated Press.

Modi and his party have been campaigning vigorously at the temple dedicated to Lord Rama, built on the historic ruins of a mosque destroyed by Hindu mobs in 1992.

Experts said Modi’s January opening, with a ceremony inside the temple, marked the informal launch of his election campaign in the hopes of resonating with the majority Hindu electorate. His government fashioned it into a national event, staging live screenings across the country and closing offices for half a day.

The BJP had been holding the Ayodhya seat, which falls under Faizabad constituency, since 2014.