by YP Rajesh, Shivangi Acharya and Krishn Kaushik
NEW DELHI, June 4 (Reuters) – The alliance led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already won a majority of seats in the legislative elections halfway through the counting on Tuesday, far however from the tidal wave predicted at the exit ballot boxes, local media reported.
As of 1100 GMT, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won almost 300 of the 543 seats in Parliament, where 272 seats provide a simple majority.
The final results should be known in several hours.
Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main coalition party, however, failed to obtain as large a majority as in previous elections, with less than 250 votes won so far. compared to 303 in 2019.
If the NDA is forced to seek support from smaller parties to form a government, it may not be able to function as effectively as it has over the past decade.
This prospect spooked the markets and India’s two main stock indices fell sharply on Tuesday.
The rupee also fell against the dollar and benchmark bond yields were higher.
“A shorter-than-expected victory for Modi’s alliance may raise doubts about the new government’s ability to push through politically difficult reforms seen as crucial,” commented Vasu Menon, director of investment strategy at OCBC in Singapore.
“Despite this, the fact remains that the BJP-led alliance is likely to win a third term, meaning the government will continue its efforts on infrastructure and manufacturing to boost economic growth” , he added.
The opposition alliance “INDIA”, led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party, had more than 220 seats halfway through the counting, a result already higher than expected.
(Editors from New Delhi and Bombay, written by YP Rajesh; French version Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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