Pro-Business Narendra Modi wins in a landslide in Asia’s third largest economy’s biggest ballot exercise!
With a record of more than 500 million ballots cast from the Himalayas in the north to the tropical south, staggered over five weeks in the blistering heat, India decided to trounce the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled for decades and paved the way for a sweeping mandate for Narendra Modi. India recorded a 66.4% voter turnout in nine phases of the world’s biggest voting exercise held between April 7 and May 12. On Friday the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led in 335 seats, comfortably hurdling the 272 halfway mark needed to grab power and instead got 282. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was limping in at 60, heading for it’s worst-ever tally. Leads and results from all 543 seats were in.
What Lead to Modi’s Win: Numbers Game
The BJP alliance swept the electorally key state of Uttar Pradesh, leading or winning in a stunning 72 out of 80 seats, its campaign orchestrated by Modi’s right hand man Amit Shah. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party, which runs the state government, was winning just a handful of seats. In Bihar, the party led in 28 out of 40 seats, and in the nation’s capital, the BJP was leading in all seven.
Many prominent Congress ministers lost, including Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Information and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal and Sachin Pilot. Arun Jaitley was a prominent loser on the BJP side, undone by anti-incumbency against the ruling Akali Dal in Amritsar. Big winners included J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, which led in 38 out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which was leading in 34 in West Bengal out of 42. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which stunned observers by winning the Delhi assembly last year, made an encouraging Lok Sabha debut, leading in a handful of seats in Punjab. But its chief, Arvind Kejriwal, fell well short of Modi in Varanasi.
Pro-business and a hindu nationalist, Modi’s name started creating buzz in 2001 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader became the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. He has been regarded as a dynamic and efficient politician who has helped to make his state an economic powerhouse. After a decade in opposition brand, Modi led the BJP back to power, taking advantage of public anger at ruling Congress for uncontrolled high prices, corruption scams and rising unemployment.
Analysts in India are of the view that the reason Modi remains unscathed despite his unremorseful image after he was alleged for his involvement in the Gujarat Riots, is the strong support he enjoys among senior leaders in the right-wing Hindu organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Many observers believe that even if he may polarize public opinion, he has also been credited for bringing prosperity and development to Gujarat and has enjoyed support from some of India's top industrialists from many years.
India Inc. is jubilant at the win and is expecting some bold reforms. Businessmen are looking at the new government to bolster reforms and put the economy back on track.