Vote counting is still underway in India’s 2024 Lok Sabha election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance has yet to secure the 272 seats needed for a parliamentary majority, but the prime minister has declared “a very big win.”
We know who the prime minister will be. What does India’s president do?
India’s president is its head of state, but the position is largely ceremonial.
Droupadi Murmu, the current president, was elected in 2022 by lawmakers — an electoral college that consists of lawmakers in both houses of Parliament and elected members of the legislative assemblies of all states. She hails from the same political party as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The position can be important during times of political uncertainty such as a hung parliament, when the office assumes greater power. The president is bound by the advice of the Cabinet led by the prime minister, who is the chief executive.
14 hours in, here are the tallies
Tallies reported by India’s Election Commission showed Modi’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, 209 of them going to BJP.
The opposition Congress party is part of the INDIA alliance, which so far had won 177 seats, 81 of them for Congress.
Tallying is ongoing. A total of 272 seats are needed for a majority.
Learn more about Narendra Modi
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who claimed victory for his alliance in an election seen as a referendum on his decade in power, is a popular but polarizing leader who has presided over a fast-growing economy while advancing Hindu nationalism.
Modi, 73, is only the second Indian prime minister to win a third straight term.
To supporters, Modi is a larger-than-life figure who has improved India’s standing in the world, helped make its economy the world’s fifth-largest, and streamlined the country’s vast welfare program, which serves around 60% of the population. To some, he may even be more than human.
But to critics, he’s a cult leader who has eroded India’s democracy and advanced divisive politics targeting the Muslims who make up 14% of the country’s population. They say he has also increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent.
▶ Read more in our profile of the prime minister.
WATCH: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters listen to PM Narendra Modi’s victory speech
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters listen to prime minister Narendra Modi’s victory speech at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
South Asian neighbors congratulate…