The world’s largest democratic exercise has ended, with a twist. Some 642mn Indians cast their votes in the seven-phase, multi-week poll in the midst of a heatwave. The Bharatiya Janata party leader, Narendra Modi, announced on Tuesday, as expected, that he would come back for a third consecutive term — the first such hat-trick since independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. But he returns humbled.
The BJP is on course to lose its own outright majority, and with its allies it is set to take fewer seats in India’s lower house than in 2019 — well short of the resounding win exit polls had suggested. It leaves Modi weakened, and more beholden to coalition partners and the opposition. Businesses and investors were banking on continuity and a stronger majority. Stocks, bond prices and the rupee tumbled.
The surprise outcome could, however, prove to be supportive to the long-term development of the world’s most populous nation and fastest-growing major economy. Indeed, if it encourages the hubristic, Hindu nationalist BJP to engage in more deliberative policymaking and enlivens Indian democracy, just when many feared it was flickering, it could strengthen the country’s rise.