US President Barack Obama vowed to work closely with the new Indian government as exit poll results yesterday indicated that Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pulled off a crushing victory in the world’s biggest election.
“Modi at Delhi Gate” said a headline in the Mail Today, while the Hindustan Times read simply: “Exit Polls: Enter Modi” after a flurry of surveys released after voting ended pointed to a decisive result.
All the polls showed that the right-wing opposition alliance led by the chief minister of Gujarat State routed the left-leaning Indian National Congress party that has been in power for a decade, with most also indicating that the alliance scraped enough votes to form a new coalition without having to seek fresh partners.
Modi’s top aide predicted that the margin of victory would be even wider when the results are announced on Friday, while emphasizing that the BJP leader was open to forging new alliances.
Modi struck a conciliatory tone by saying it was time for “healing” after an often bitter five-week contest in which 551 million voters cast ballots.
While a BJP win had been expected, the apparent scale of Congress’ defeat was still striking, with polls showing support for the party that has ruled India for most of the post-independence era at a nadir.
Four out of the five exit polls showed the BJP-led alliance just reaching the 272-seat threshold needed to form a majority in the 543-member national parliament.
However, such polls have been off the mark in the past and Modi’s chief lieutenant, Amit Shah, said he expected an even bigger victory.
“My personal view is that we will get around 300 seats,” he told the Headlines Today network.
Even if the BJP-led alliance does pass the 272 threshold, Modi is still likely to need more partners to have a stable coalition. Many analysts have predicted he will strike a deal with a Tamil Nadu-based party the polls predict will get about 30 seats.
Although Obama said the US looks forward to “working closely with India’s next administration to make the coming years equally transformative,” Modi’s election would present something of a headache for Washington, which refused to deal with him for years after religious riots in Gujarat in 2002.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the violence critics say Modi did little to stop, even though he has been cleared of involvement by the courts.
Washington only ended its boycott of Modi in February and European countries also refused to deal with him for years after the riots, for which he has refused to apologize.
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