Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting at Jeringa Patthar in Sivasagar district in the Indian state of Assam on January 23, 2021.
Peugeot boro | AFP | Getty Images
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears set for a rare third consecutive term in power, with local opinion polls on Saturday suggesting his Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition will achieve a parliamentary majority.
According to a poll summary by local news channel NDTV, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is expected to do so Securing about 365 seats out of 543 seats In the House of Representatives of Parliament. The party or coalition that wins at least 272 votes will form the government. It is possible that the final results expected on Tuesday will differ from the expectations of opinion polls upon exit from the polls.
If the poll results, whose record has been patchy, are confirmed, Modi will serve another five years as the country’s prime minister – a position he has held since 2014.
India’s vote, the world’s largest democratic election poll of less than a billion eligible voters, was conducted in seven phases over the past six weeks and began on April 19. There are a total of 543 seats contested in the House of Representatives, and the party or coalition that wins them gets at least 272 votes and forms the government.
Under Modi’s decade-long rule, India has seen strong economic growth and a jump in its global reputation. India is home to 1.4 billion people One of the fastest growing economies Globally, which expanded by 7.2% in the fiscal year 2022-2023, achieving The second highest growth rate among the G20 countries. the International Monetary Fund projects India’s economy will grow by 6.8% in 2024 and 6.5% in 2025, compared to China expected growth of 5% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025.
Some economists are even more optimistic. “The bigger the growth, the more difficult it is to sustain a very high level of growth, but I think it is possible to achieve 7% to 7.5% growth,” Sujan Hagra, chief economist at Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers, told CNBC. Adding that improving infrastructure will be a major priority to boost growth.
“Soft infrastructure such as improving the country’s healthcare network will get more focus this time compared to hard infrastructure because a lot of work has already been done on this,” Harja said.
In the Obviously the BJP During the coming period, Modi pledged that his government would push India to become one of the three largest economies in the world, fight poverty forcefully, open new horizons for growth and address corruption.
Despite world leaders’ optimism about India’s growth trajectory under Modi, observers and pundits have warned that the prime minister’s third term in office could bring more signs of democratic backsliding. He has also been charged From hate speech to describing Muslims as “infiltrators.”At a rally days after voting began. India’s religious divide remained a hot topic during the election, as well as unemployment.
According to a survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, unemployment was the biggest concern for 27% of the 10,000 people surveyed. More than half (62%) of those surveyed also said it had become harder to find a job in the past five years during Modi’s second term.
Modi It said He said in March that he was confident that the BJP and the broader National Democratic Alliance would get a total of 400 seats, but analysts say that is unlikely to matter as long as it is close to the 303 seats it got in 2019.
“The outlook will remain very positive for the Indian equity market as we have seen the kind of progress and efficiency that it has been able to achieve from a governance perspective since 2019 with 303 seats,” said Malcolm Dorson, a senior portfolio manager. and Head of Emerging Markets Strategy at Global
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