India’s General Election 2024: Modi Projected to Win Third Term Amid Hindu Nationalism Surge

India’s General Election 2024

As India’s general election ends, Modi expected to be re-elected

The six-week general election in India concluded with Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party expected to secure a third landslide victory, according to exit polls. Modi expressed confidence in his government’s achievements in improving the lives of the poor and marginalized, while opposition parties criticized the results as biased.

The official election results will be announced on June 4, with Modi’s coalition partners projected to win between 353 and 401 seats. Despite concerns among India’s Muslim population regarding their future under Modi, market analysts predict a rebound in Indian markets due to his growth-focused economic policies.

Key Concepts

• Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi expected to win third landslide victory in India’s general election.
• Exit polls predict Modi and coalition partners winning between 353 and 401 seats.
• Opposition parties criticize exit poll results as biased and unscientific.
• Official election results to be announced on June 4.
• Indian National Congress predicts winning at least 259 seats in government’s exit poll.
• Varanasi voters show strong support for Prime Minister Modi.
• Unease among India’s Muslim population regarding their future under Modi’s leadership.
• Concerns about unemployment and focus on temple politics rather than job creation.
• Market analysts predict Modi’s growth-focused economic policies will continue.
• Rebound expected in Indian markets following release of exit polls.

India’s six-week general election ended in sweltering heat on Saturday, with Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set to win a third landslide victory.

The election results will be formally announced on June 4, but analysts see Modi’s victory as a foregone conclusion, thanks in large part to his activism in defence of Hinduism, the religious faith of India’s majority.

Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party, and its coalition partners were expected to win between 353 and 401 seats, according to five major exit polls, well above the two-thirds threshold of 272 needed for a majority.

Modi was also confident that he would win the election. He announced his victory on the social media platform X and said, “The Indian people have seen our achievements and how our work has brought qualitative changes to the lives of the poor, marginalized, and vulnerable groups.”

The opposition parties disagreed with the exit poll results and called them “premeditated”. Most opposition parties accused India’s mainstream news channels of being biased towards Modi, but the media denied the allegations. The opposition parties also said that most of India’s exit poll results were unscientific.

“This is the government’s exit poll; this is Modi’s exit poll. We know how many seats we can win, and it will not be less than 259,” Supriya Shrinate, the social media head of the Indian National Congress, told ANI, a national news agency.

India is a vast and diverse country with nearly a billion eligible voters, and past experience shows that exit polls are not accurate, so the actual results remain uncertain.

In Varanasi, Modi’s constituency, many voters were excited about the prospect of him taking power when they cast their ballots on Saturday.

“I voted for the growth and development of the country,” Varanasi resident Brijesh Taksali told AFP outside a polling station, backing Modi, 73, for a second term.

Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism. For Hindus, Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges, is one of the most sacred cities in the world, and believers from all over the country come here to cremate their deceased relatives.

Varanasi was one of the last cities to vote in India’s lengthy election, and public support for Modi’s growing alliance between church and state was strongest here.

Modi, who in January controversially inaugurated a Hindu temple built on the site of a demolished mosque, has left the country’s more than 200 million Muslims uneasy about their future.

Janesar Akhtar, a Muslim embroidery worker in Varanasi, told AFP that temple politics diverted people’s attention from the unemployment problem. “The Modi government has been busy with politics in temples and mosques. He should bring us jobs instead of creating tension.”

Surveys show unemployment and inflation are the biggest concerns of Indian voters. Market analysts say Modi’s growth-focused economic policies will continue.

VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, predicts that Indian markets will rebound next Monday as the results of exit polls eliminate the market’s election anxiety and are a shot in the arm for bulls.