‘Air of invincibility pierced': What foreign press said on Lok Sabha election results

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) emerged as the largest alliance in the Lok Sabha elections, easily crossing the majority figure of 272, even as the saffron party fell well short of its target of winning 370 seats on its own and more than 400 with its allies.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party which was looking for a third consecutive term in office and its third straight single-party majority, won 240 seats, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI), putting the saffron party well ahead of the Congress, the largest opposition party, which bagged 99 seats. The BJP, however, lost 63 seats from its 2019 tally, having won 282 in 2014, while the Congress won 55 and 47 more seats than in 2014 and 2019 respectively.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, is likely to achieve a hat-trick of terms in the country's top office.

Here's how international media reacted:

Washington Post: The results were an “unexpected repudiation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” The Washington Post said, adding that there was “tepid support for his Hindu nationalist party, piercing the air of invincibility around the most dominant Indian politician in decades.”

The Guardian: “Narendra Modi looks set to win a third term in power but early election results indicated he had not achieved the landslide victory many had predicted,” a piece in The Guardian stated.

“The opposition alliance appeared to far outperform expectations,” it added.

The Times: “His (PM Modi) poorer performance will have political ramifications. At a minimum, the BJP will have to depend more on the junior members of its existent multi-party alliance. Two of those do not support Mr Modi's ‘Hindu-first’ agenda.”

Financial Times: “The results would be a return to coalition politics. Many Indians had expected a clear Modi victory in an election seen as a referendum on his decade in office and a campaign focused largely on his personality.”