Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reelected by a landslide during its six-week, seven-phase election, with the conservative National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 355 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. The upper chamber, the Rajya Sabha, is slated to complete its next election in June.
Modi and the NDA claimed victory after the official vote count began Thursday, with exit polls showing a landslide victory for the NDA in the 17th Lok Sabha.
By Friday, the preliminary results showed the NDA, led by Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not only winning a new term, but expanding its majority in the Lok Sabha.
Final results show the NDA with 355 seats, including 303 for the BJP. That’s well above the 272 seats needed for a majority, and close to a two-thirds supermajority. The BJP won 282 seats in 2014, while the NDA controlled a total of 336.
The center-left United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by Rahul Gandhi’s Indian National Congress party, suffered a crushing defeat, falling from a total of 104 seats to just 92.
President Donald Trump congratulated Modi via Twitter Friday for his “big election victory”.
“Congratulations to Prime Minister @NarendraModi and his BJP party on their BIG election victory! Great things are in store for the US-India partnership with the return of PM Modi at the helm. I look forward to continuing our important work together!”