Modi heads for victory in India vote, with reduced majority

NEW DELHI

India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for victory in the country's general election count on Tuesday, but with a reduced parliamentary majority as the opposition surpassed expectations.

Commentators and exit polls had long projected an overwhelming victory for Modi, whose campaign wooed the Hindu majority to the worry of country's 200-million-plus Muslim community, deepening concerns for minority rights.

But for the first time in a decade, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would fail to secure an overall majority of its own, figures from the election commission projected, meaning it would need to rely on its alliance partners.

The main opposition Congress party was set to nearly double its parliamentary seats, in a remarkable turnaround largely driven by deals to field single candidates against the BJP's electoral juggernaut.

With three-quarters of the votes counted, the BJP's vote share at 38.1 percent was marginally higher than the last polls in 2019.

The election commission figures showed the BJP and its allies leading in at least 286 seats out of a total of 543, enough for a parliamentary majority.

But the BJP itself was only leading in 242, well down on the 303 it won five years ago, while the Congress was ahead in 99, up from 52.

Celebrations had already begun at the headquarters of Modi's BJP before the full announcement of results.

But the mood at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi was also one of jubilation.

"BJP has failed to win a big majority on its own," Congress lawmaker Rajeev Shukla told reporters. "It's a moral defeat for them."