Modi declares victory in India election but party faces shock losses and will need coalition

India’s transformative yet divisive Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory in national elections on Tuesday evening, but his goal of winning an unassailable majority lies in tatters with early results showing as voters delivered a shock result that reduces the extent of his party’s grip on power.

India’s transformative yet divisive Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory in national elections on Tuesday evening, but his goal of winning an unassailable majority lies in tatters with early results showing voters delivered a shock result that reduces the extent of his party’s grip on power. “Today is a glorious day… National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is going to form the government for the third time, we are grateful to the people,” Modi told cheering supporters at his party headquarters in New Delhi, referring to the initials of his political alliance. “This is a victory for the world’s largest democracy.” Modi is set to form a government with the help of his NDA allies – a third consecutive term and a landmark that makes him one of the most successful politicians in post-independence India. But preliminary figures from the election commission indicate Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had fallen short of securing the 272 seats needed to win an outright majority in parliament, a stunning upset that leaves them reliant on coalition partners to form a government. This is a personal blow to Modi, who had triumphantly vowed to win a 400-seat supermajority in this year’s election – and romped to victory the last two contests with a simple majority for the BJP, turning his Hindu nationalist right-wing party into an electoral juggernaut. India’s opposition, who had largely been written off in the polls and by many analysts, portrayed the result as a rejection of Modi’s divisive style.