(4 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Geneva, Switzerland – 4 June 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Milan Vaishnav, Director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:
“We’re seeing a pretty dramatic underperformance. But we shouldn’t lose sight, at the same time, that the BJP does sit in the driver’s seat, is going to have to make concessions to allies to govern. That is a position Narendra Modi has never been in, not (in) 13 years, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and not (in) ten years as the prime minister of India. So we don’t know what this is going to look like. But this is going to mean a government that has to operate with greater consultation, greater deliberation. It’s going to have a stronger opposition, not a weak opposition as it’s had for the past ten years. And so this is truly, you know, uncharted territory, both for Indians as well as for the prime minister.”
STORYLINE:
The Director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Tuesday that Narendra Modi is in "unchartered territory" due to "pretty dramatic underperformance" in India’s general election.
"We don’t know what this is going to look like. But this is going to mean a government that has to operate with greater consultation, greater deliberation. It’s going to have a stronger opposition, not a weak opposition as it’s had for the past ten years," analyst Milan Vaishnav said.
Narendra Modi declared victory Tuesday for his alliance, claiming a mandate to push forward with his agenda, even though his party lost seats to a stronger than expected opposition, which pushed back against his mixed economic record and polarizing politics.
Official results from India’s Election Commission showed the NDA won 286 seats, more than the 272 seats needed to secure a majority but far fewer than had been expected.
Modi’s win was only the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
But also, for the first time since his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014, it did not secure a majority on its own, winning 240 seats —- far fewer than the record 303 it won in the 2019 election.
That means Modi will need the support of other parties in his coalition — a stunning blow for the 73-year-old, who had hoped for a landslide victory.
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