India PM Modi appears set to triumph as voting ends in marathon election

Varanasi, India: India s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked set to win a third straight landslide election victory on Saturday at t...

Varanasi, India: India's Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked set to win a third straight landslide election victory on Saturday at the close of a six-week general election bedevilled by searing heatwaves.

Results will be formally announced on Tuesday but Modi's victory has long been treated as a foregone conclusion by analysts, in large part due to his aggressive championing of India's majority faith.

Exit polls showed he was well on track to triumph and Modi himself was certain he had prevailed, saying he was confident that "the people of India have voted in record numbers" to re-elect his government.

"They have seen our track record and the manner in which our work has brought about a qualitative change in the lives of the poor, marginalised and downtrodden," he said on social media platform X.

An exit poll from broadcaster CNN-News18 forecast Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition allies to win 355 seats, well above the 272 needed for a majority in the lower house.