After a month of campaigning, voting, and claims of godhood, the final phase of the largest democratic election in the world has concluded.
On Saturday, June 1, 2024, the final phase of the election concluded. The last of India’s 969 million voting population had the chance to cast their ballots.
While we will not know the final results until votes are counted on June 4, exit polls are painting the picture of one clear winner.
This election is for India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha, which has 543 seats and picks the country’s Prime Minister. This election is for India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha, which has 543 seats and selects the country’s Prime Minister. A simple majority requires 272 seats.
Since the beginning of the election, there has really only been two alliances of parties of note:
The first is the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Its most prominent party is the Indian National Congress, a social democratic, liberal party, positioned at India’s political center and signified by its previous big influence on Indian politics.
It was the party of Mahatma Gandhi and the influential Nehru-Gandhi family (akin to the Kennedys in the US). This family includes former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and Rajiv’s wife, Sonia Gandhi, who is the current party leader.
The INDIA alliance consists of a diverse group of parties united primarily to end the rule of the other main alliance.
That one being the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP alone currently holds the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha, having won a whopping 303 seats in the most recent election prior to this.
The BJP is a fiscally left-wing, yet socially conservative, Hindu nationalist party. In its decade in government, the PM has garnered a lot of loyalty from voters by creating a certain cult of personality, framing himself as the charismatic, globally oriented, yet spiritual and warm paternal figure of the nation.
However, he has also faced criticism for legislation targeting religious minorities, his association with the right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and his party’s suppression of freedom of speech. This includes “routinized intimidation and killing of journalists and political critics, vigilante lynching, and general clampdown on dissent.”
Most recently, Modi made headlines and sparked outrage among the opposition by claiming he was not born by his mother, but rather “sent by God.”
Despite being a controversial figure, however, Modi seems to continue to receive the overwhelming support of the Indian population.
According to Reuters, the NDA is poised to win as much as two-thirds of the seats in the Lok Sabha. A summary of five major exit polls projects that the NDA will win somewhere between 353 and 401 seats.
If the NDA does win two thirds of the Lok Sabha seats, the government would have the power to make significant changes to the Indian constitution.
