LS POLLS

Now, Modi banks on allies' guarantee

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to take the reins of the country for a third consecutive term with the BJP-led NDA winning a majority in the Lok Sabha, but suffered a big setback in the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, making him dependent on the allies to run the government.
The Election Commission of India has declared results for all the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, with the BJP winning 240 seats and the Congress 99.

The BJP, whose candidates had contested in the name of Modi, won 240 seats, falling short of the 272 majority mark and needing the support of allies in the party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for government formation, a far cry from the 303 and 282 seats it had won in 2019 and 2014, respectively, to have a majority on its own.

With support from BJP's key allies N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which won 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, and other alliance partners, the NDA crossed the halfway mark and bagged 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The TDP also swept the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, dislodging YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP.

Preparing to take office for a record-equalling historic third term, Prime Minister Modi pledged to work with all states, regardless of the party in power, to build a developed India. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had served three consecutive terms. In his first speech after the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, Modi laid out his vision for the third term saying it would be a tenure of big decisions and key emphasis would be on uprooting corruption.
It is the first time that 73-year-old Modi will be dependent on allies to be in the government since he came into politics.

"The fight against corruption is becoming tougher by the day. Corruption is being shamelessly glorified for political interest. In our third term, NDA will focus a lot on rooting out corruption of all kinds," Modi said.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge termed the poll outcome as the "victory of the people and that of democracy".
"We had been saying that this battle is between the public and Modi... This mandate is against Modi. This is his political and moral defeat. It is a big defeat for a person who sought votes in his own name. He has suffered a moral setback," Kharge told reporters at the AICC headquarters, flanked by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after the good showing by the Congress.

The elections also highlighted the revival of the main Opposition Congress party under Rahul Gandhi, and the unexpected role of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh -- under Akhilesh Yadav -- as a giant slayer. The results did not throw up a landslide victory the BJP-led NDA had hoped for and what was projected by the exit polls.

The NDA was stirred into life mostly around elections in the last 10 years as the BJP's big majority and shrinking opposition in the Lok Sabha made its allies mostly redundant but this time around, allies will matter more than ever.

The Congress, which is part of the opposition INDIA bloc, won 99 seats compared to 52 it won in 2019, eating into the BJP's share in Rajasthan and Haryana. As Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav kept the INDIA bloc's morale high in Uttar Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress, another key ally of the Opposition alliance, won in 29 seats in West Bengal, higher than its 2019 tally of 22. The BJP, which had 18 seats in the last Lok Sabha election, won 12 seats.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 33 seats against its tally of 62 in 2019, and the Samajwadi Party's numbers went up, largely attributed to three factors -- consolidation of Muslim votes in its favour, smart seat-sharing agreements with Congress to avoid splitting of non-BJP votes and widespread discontent with the BJP government over jobs and price rise. The party won 37 of the 80 seats at stake.
Modi retained the Varanasi seat but with a reduced victory margin of nearly 1.53 lakh votes. In 2019, the margin was 4,79,505.

Rahul Gandhi, often lampooned by the BJP as 'shehzada' (prince), won the Wayanad (Kerala) and Raebareli (UP) seats by huge margins of 3,64,422 and 3,90,030 votes, respectively.
The campaigning for the elections, which was conducted from April 19 to June 1 in seven phases, was marked by divisive communal issues and excessive reliance on Modi for getting votes. The prime minister held more than 300 rallies, travelling tirelessly almost every day to multiple locations.
The results also blew away the BJP narrative that it would score big in the southern states. It returned a tally of zero in Tamil Nadu and lost seats in Karnataka.

The BJP did make inroads into Kerala, winning a seat for the first time in a state where the Congress and the Left are the major political forces, and in Telangana, it won eight seats. In Andhra Pradesh, BJP ally Telugu Desam Party won 16 seats and the BJP three.

The biggest setback for the BJP, which faced a stronger challenge from the opposition, however, was in the north where, besides Uttar Pradesh, it also faced losses in Rajasthan and Haryana. West Bengal also dealt the party a raw deal, although it more than made up for the losses in Odisha.

Madhya Pradesh went fully saffron with the BJP winning all 29 seats. In Gujarat, too, the BJP won 25 of the 26 seats. The party swept all seats in Delhi (7), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Uttarakhand (5). The situation was not as decisive in other states. In Bihar, the BJP won 12 seats, as did its partner JD(U) -- a vote of confidence for its leader Nitish Kumar, who swung from INDIA back to the NDA ahead of the elections. The RJD won four seats.
In Rajasthan, the BJP won 14 seats against all 25 its alliance won last time. The Congress won eight.

Haryana also threw up a shock result for the BJP, with the party winning only five seats while the other five went to the Congress. In 2019, the saffron party had won all 10.
It appeared that the election marked a return to regular politics, where voters were more concerned about bread and butter issues, especially in some Hindi heartland states where the opposition INDIA bloc managed to rally supporters around the issues of unemployment and price rise.

Maharashtra, with 48 Lok Sabha seats, saw the Shiv Sena split down the middle since the last election. The BJP, which won 23 seats five years ago, came down to nine while its ally Shiv Sena managed seven.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Congress won 13 seats, up from one, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) nine. The NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction won 8 seats. However, a silver lining was provided for the BJP by Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal who won in Nagpur and Mumbai North, respectively.

In Odisha, the BJP did spectacularly well, winning 20 of the 21 seats, while the ruling Biju Janata Dal was reduced to zero. It also secured victory in the Odisha assembly elections, winning 78 of 147 seats, a success show in the state it had never succeeded in capturing.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP won 16 seats out of 25, the BJP in three and the YSRCP in four. The Congress also gained in Karnataka, winning nine seats, up from one last time. The BJP, which got 25 seats in 2019, won 17.
(With PTI inputs)