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China’s exports in May grew at their fastest pace in more than a year despite trade tensions, though imports fell short of analyst expectations, according to customs data released Friday. Exports jumped 7.6% in May from the same month last year to $302.35 billion, rising at the fastest pace since April 2023. Imports rose by 1.8% to $219.73 billion, missing estimates of about 4% growth. The uptick in exports is also partly due to a lower base in the same period last year, when exports declined 7.5%. In comparison, exports grew by 1.5% in April compared to the same period last year while April imports rose by 8.4%. The strong exports caused China’s trade surplus to widen to $82.62 billion, up from April’s $72.35 billion. The growth in exports comes as China faces escalated trade tensions with the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. is ramping up tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars while Europe is considering levying similar tariffs. Chinese exporters anticipate strong performance on new growth drivers “Foreign tariffs are unlikely to immediately threaten exports; if anything, they may boost exports at the margin as firms speed up shipments to front-run the duties.” said Zichun Huang of Capital Economics in a note. Huang also said that exports would be supported by a weaker real effective exchange rate. “Import volumes were little changed last month, but they will probably rise soon, with increased government spending supporting the import-intensive construction sector,” she said. Factory activity in China slowed more than expected in May, according to an official survey released last week. Xi Jinping commits to strengthening ties in meeting with Putin The manufacturing purchasing managers index from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing fell to 49.5 from 50.4 in April on a scale up to 100 where 50 marks the break between expansion and contraction. China has struggled to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic, as it grapples with weaker demand globally after the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks raised interest rates to counter inflation. A slump in China’s property sector also is weighing on growth. China has set a target of around 5% for economic growth this year, an ambition that will require more policy support, economists say.

Narendra Modi, India’s two-time prime minister, was elected on June 5, 2024, as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance, a coalition of political parties that won with a slim majority in the recently concluded parliamentary election. Modi is expected to be sworn in for his third term as prime minister on June 8. The BJP had hoped for a landslide victory in the country’s six-week general election – the largest display of democracy, by far, in a year of voting around the world. But the party scored only 240 parliamentary seats in the final tally and needs coalition partners to secure a majority of 272. The Conversation U.S. spoke with Sumit Ganguly, distinguished professor of political science and the Tagore chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, to understand more about the election results and what they mean for Indian democracy. The BJP had talked about an overwhelming victory, but it seems it will not get a majority. How do you explain these results? Part of the answer lies in the Modi government’s failure to realize that while economic benefits had been substantial, their distribution has been uneven. India has seen a growth in inequality and persistent unemployment both in rural and urban areas. Unemployment of those aged 20 to 24 years is at a high of 44.49%. And that is the overall national number; that data does not tell us that it may be much worse in certain regions. The other explanation is that Modi’s exploitation of historic Hindu-Muslim tensions seems to have run its natural course. You can beat the religious drum – and Modi did with rhetoric including calling Muslims “infiltrators” – but then the day-to-day issues of jobs, housing and other such necessities take over, and these are the things people care about the most. BJP made a miscalculation, in my analysis. It failed to realize that in a country where only 11.3% of children get adequate nutrition, Hindu pride cannot be eaten – ultimately, it’s the price of potatoes and other essentials that matter. Let’s talk about Uttar Pradesh, the northern Indian state with 80 parliamentary seats. It plays a crucial role in any national election, and Modi and his alliance are set to lose the state. What happened? India’s opposition, written off as too weak, makes a stunning comeback to slow Modi's juggernaut It’s another example of the same miscalculation we are seeing nationally by the BJP. The chief minister of the state,Yogi Adityanath, saw himself as a firebrand Hindu nationalist leader and likely a successor of Modi. But he, too, failed to take into account how his policies were playing out in the poorer segments of the state’s population, who are mainly Muslims and those at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy. He pursued grand infrastructure projects such as new highways and airports, and those might well have appealed to the middle class – but not to the poor. Additionally, years of presiding over a state government that has used police power to suppress dissent, often those of the poor and marginalized, have taken their toll on Adityanath’s support. What explains BJP’s inroads into the southern state of Kerala, where it is on course to make history by winning a parliamentary seat for the first time? The gains in the south are perplexing and will require more data on voting patterns for a more accurate analysis. Historically, the BJP has not been able to make inroads into the southern states for a number of reasons. These include linguistic subnationalism owing to the hostility toward Hindi. The other issue in the south is that the practice of Hinduism is quite different, including festivals and other regional traditions. The BJP’s vision of Hinduism is based on the “great tradition” of northern India, which believes in the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as the creator, the sustainer and the destroyer gods. US congratulates Modi on his election victory The southern states are also engines of economic growth and end up subsidizing the poorer states of the north. As a consequence, there is resentment against the BJP, which has long had its political base in northern India. In July 2023, 26 opposition parties formed a coalition called INDIA – the Indian National Developmental and Inclusive Alliance – to challenge the BJP in the election. Were they given a fair chance? No, the playing field was far from level. The mass media has been mostly co-opted by the ruling BJP to advance its agenda. Apart from one or two regional newspapers, all the national dailies scrupulously avoid any criticism of the BJP, and the major television channels mostly act as cheerleaders of the government’s policies. A number of intelligence agencies are alleged to have been used for blatantly partisan purposes against the opposition parties. Political leaders have been jailed on charges that may prove to be dubious. For example, Arvind Kejriwal, the highly popular chief minister of New Delhi, was charged with alleged improprieties in the allocation of liquor licenses and jailed just days after election dates were announced. Despite the electoral losses, Modi is expected to return as prime minister for a third term. Given that the BJP got just two seats in the 1984 elections, what factors led to the party’s meteoric rise? The BJP has built a solid organizational base across the country, unlike the Indian National Congress, the principal opposition party. And the Congress party has done little to revitalize its political foundations, which had eroded in the 1970s after then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency and a non-Congress government came into power for the first time. The BJP has also appealed to the sentiments of the majority Hindu population through slogans that paint India’s principal minority, Muslims, as the source of myriad societal problems. Hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities surged across India over the past few years. India's Modi prepares for record 3rd term as nations congratulate his government on election victory Finally, the BJP also benefited from economic reforms that the earlier Congress government had set in motion from the 1990s, including a national goods and services tax and the privatization of the loss-making, state-owned airline, Air India, thereby contributing to substantial economic growth in India. In December 1992, Hindu nationalists destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque. How crucial was that to BJP’s rise to power? And what should we read into BJP losing its seat in Ayodhya? The destruction of the Babri Mosque certainly galvanized an important segment of the Hindu electorate and led to a growth in support for the BJP. In 1999 – just seven years after the event – the BJP first came to power in a coalition government in which it had 182 out of 543 seats in the Indian Parliament. Two national elections later, in 2014, Modi assumed office as the prime minister with a clear-cut majority of 282 seats. In January 2024, just a few months before the election, Modi inaugurated a newly constructed temple in Ayodhya, the site of the Babri Mosque. It was a carefully stage-managed event with an eye on votes. However, BJP lost its seat in Ayodhya. It’s possible that all the fanfare around the new temple appealed to people outside of Ayodhya – but not to the city’s residents who continued to deal with waste mismanagement and other issues. What’s next for Modi? And what do the results tell us about Indian democracy? It’s certainly possible that Modi will form the government with coalition partners. I believe that Modi, as an astute politician, will most likely learn from this setback and adapt his tactics to new realities. The results might also be a useful corrective – the Indian voter has once again demonstrated that he or she might be willing to put up with some things but not others. Indian voters have demonstrated in the past that when they see democracy being threatened, they tend to punish leaders with autocratic tendencies. We saw this when the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suffered a crushing defeat in the elections in 1977. The elections followed a state of emergency that Gandhi had imposed on the country, suspending all civil liberties. Back then, it was India’s poor who voted her out of power. This time around, we might need to wait on additional electoral data about how particular caste and income groups voted. This article was updated on June 5, 2024, with the final election results and other developments. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.

India’s bruised and battered opposition was largely written off in the lead-up to the national election as too weak and fragmented to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his powerful Hindu nationalist governing party. It scored a stunning comeback, slowing the Modi juggernaut and pushing his Bharatiya Janata Party well below the majority mark. It's unchartered territory for the populist prime minister, who needs the help of his allies to stay in power. That could significantly change his governance style after he enjoyed a commanding majority in Parliament for a decade. The election results released Wednesday also marked a revival for the main opposition Congress party and its allies, who defied predictions of decline and made deep inroads into governing party strongholds, resetting India’s political landscape. The opposition won a total of 232 seats out of 543, doubling its strength from the last election. “The opposition has proved to be tremendously resilient and shown courage of conviction. In many ways it has saved India’s democracy and shown Modi that he can be challenged — and even humbled by denting his image of electoral invincibility,” said journalist and political analyst Rasheed Kidwai. The unwieldy grouping of more than two dozen opposition parties, called INDIA, was formed last year. Beset with ideological differences and personality clashes, what glued them together was a shared perceived threat: what they call Modi’s tightening grip on India’s democratic institutions and Parliament, and his strident Hindu nationalism that has targeted the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims. India's Modi prepares for record 3rd term as nations congratulate his government on election victory The election battle is between “Narendra Modi and INDIA, his ideology and INDIA,” the alliance’s campaign face, Rahul Gandhi, said at an opposition meeting last year. Gandhi, heir to India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, has long been mocked by Modi, his party and his supporters as a beneficiary of dynastic politics. Gandhi’s father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers. Under his leadership, the Congress party was reduced to a paltry 52 seats in 2019 when Modi romped to victory in a landslide win. And last year he was expelled from Parliament due to a defamation case after Modi's party accused him of mocking the prime minister's surname. (He was later returned to his seat by India’s top court.) But ahead of the 2024 election, Gandhi went through a transformation — he embarked on two cross-country marches against what he called Modi’s politics of hate, re-energizing his party's members and rehabilitating his image. During the election campaign, he, along with other opposition leaders, sought to galvanize voters on issues such as high unemployment, growing inequality and economic and social injustice, while targeting Modi over his polarizing campaign and anti-Muslim rhetoric. “They certainly gained significant momentum through the course of the campaign, to the point where the opposition agendas became the agenda points of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar. The election results showed his messaging worked with the voters, as his party made substantial gains in BJP-governed states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra by tapping into economic stress. It won 99 seats across India. “Rahul Gandhi has emerged as a strong national leader and that should worry Modi,” Kidwai said. The opposition proved even more successful in a Modi party bastion where it flipped the largest number of seats: Uttar Pradesh, which sends the most lawmakers of any state — 80 — to Parliament. Long considered the biggest prize in Indian elections, the opposition clinched a staggering 44 parliamentary seats in the state, with the regional Samajwadi Party winning a whopping 37, leaving Modi's party with less than half of the seats. In the 2019 election, the BJP won 62 seats in the state. India's popular but polarizing PM Narendra Modi is extending his decade in power. Who is he? The opposition also managed to wrest away BJP’s seat in Ayodhya city, a deeply symbolic loss for Modi’s party after the prime minister opened a controversial grand Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque there in January. The opening of the temple dedicated to Lord Ram, at which Modi performed rituals, marked the unofficial start of his election campaign, with his party hoping it would resonate with the Hindu majority and bring more voters into its fold. “The BJP lost because its leadership did not have its ears to the ground. They believed that the issue of the Ram Temple would secure their victory, but they overlooked important issues like jobs and inflation,” said political analyst Amarnath Agarwal. A strong showing by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party in Tamil Nadu further boosted the opposition's numbers, denying Modi the supermajority he hoped for after exhibiting confidence his alliance would take 400 seats. It also meant that the regional parties, once relegated to the margins after Modi's dominating wins in 2014 and 2019, will acquire a greater political space in Indian politics. “It also gives a lot of power back to the states," said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We’ve seen a lot of centralization in the hands of the executive, in the hands of the Prime Minister’s Office specifically.” The opposition's surprise gains came against the backdrop of what it calls Modi's intensified political crackdown against them. Modi and his government have increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents. In the run-up to the election, opposition leaders and parties faced a slew of legal and financial challenges. The chief ministers of two opposition-controlled states were thrown in jail and the bank accounts of the Congress party were temporarily frozen. Aiyar, the public policy scholar, said the opposition was able to “palpably catch on to signs of discontentment” even as it faced “fairly significant constraints of their own.” “This was certainly not a level playing field at the start of the election,” she said. As election results showed the opposition doing better than expected on Tuesday, a beaming Gandhi pulled out a red-jacketed copy of India’s Constitution that he had displayed on the campaign trail and said his alliance’s performance was the “first step in its fight” to save the charter. "India’s poorest stood up to save the Constitution," he said.

China, Ukraine and other nations sent their congratulations on Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government began preparations for his swearing-in for a record third term following the world's largest democratic election. Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party met with allies who unanimously elected Modi as the National Democratic Alliance leader. Modi is likely to be sworn in as the prime minister on Saturday, local media said. Official results from the Election Commission showed the BJP-led National Democratic alliance won 294 of the 543 seats, more than the 272 needed for a majority but far fewer than had been expected. For the first time since the BJP 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. Modi met on Wednesday with Indian President Droupadi Murmu and tendered his customary resignation along with that of his Cabinet ahead of the swearing-in ceremony. Congratulatory messages to Modi from leaders of regional countries including Nepal and Bhutan were the first to arrive, while the White House commended India for its “vibrant democratic process.” In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday extended congratulations to the BJP. "A sound and stable India-China relationship is in the interest of both countries and conducive to the peace and development of this region and beyond,” she said, adding that China is ready to work with India in the fundamental interest of the two countries. Tensions remain high between India and China, with tens of thousands of soldiers massed on their disputed border since 2020. A clash left 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers dead. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he looked forward to seeing India attend a peace summit to be hosted by Switzerland. "Everyone in the world recognizes the significance and weight of India’s role in global affairs. It is critical that we all work together to ensure a just peace for all nations,” he said. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said he looked forward to expanding collaboration in trade, technology and other sectors to contribute to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. In the election, the opposition Congress party won 99 seats, improving its tally from 52 in the 2019 polls. Among its key allies, the Samajwadi Party won 37 seats in northern Uttar Pradesh state in a major upset for the BJP, the All India Trinamool Congress took 29 seats in West Bengal state, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won 22 seats in southern Tamil Nadu state. Combined, the opposition INDIA coalition won a total of 232 seats. The BJP may now be “heavily dependent on the goodwill of its allies, which makes them critical players who we can expect will extract their pound of flesh, both in terms of policymaking as well as government formation,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “At the very least, the result pricks the bubble of Prime Minister Modi’s authority. He made this election about himself,” Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a political commentator, said in The Indian Express newspaper. “Today, he is just another politician, cut to size by the people.” More than 640 million votes were cast in the marathon election held over six weeks, the world’s largest democratic exercise.

Since coming to power a decade ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been known for big, bold and often snap decisions that he’s found easy to execute thanks to the brute majority he enjoyed in India's lower house of parliament. In 2016, he yanked over 80% of bank notes from circulation in an effort to curb tax evasion that sent shockwaves through the country and devastated citizens who lost money. In 2019, his government pushed through a controversial law that stripped the special status of disputed, Muslim-majority Kashmir with hardly any debate in parliament. And in 2020, Modi swiftly brought in contentious agriculture reforms — though he was forced to drop those about a year later after mass protests from farmers. In his expected next term as prime minister — when he will need a coalition to govern after results announced Wednesday showed his Hindu nationalist party fell short of a majority — Modi may have to adapt to a style of governance he has little experience with, or desire for. And it's not clear how that will play out. “Negotiating and forming a coalition, working with coalition partners, grappling with the tradeoffs that come with coalition politics — none of this fits in well with Modi’s brand of assertive and go-it-alone politics,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. The surprising election results upended widespread expectations before the vote and exit polls that suggested a stronger showing for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. In the end, the party won 240 seats — short of the 272 needed to form the government on its own. But the coalition it belongs to, the National Democratic Alliance, secured a majority that should allow Modi to retain power in the world’s most populous nation. “India cuts Modi down,” read one Indian newspaper headline on Wednesday, referring to the 642 million voters as well as the opposing INDIA alliance, which clawed seats away from the BJP. This is both a major setback and unknown territory for Modi, who has never needed his coalition partners to govern since first becoming prime minister in 2014. It has left him the most vulnerable he has been in his 23-year political career. “These results show that the Modi wave has receded, revealing a level of electoral vulnerability that many could not have foreseen,” said Kugelman. India has a history of messy coalition governments — but Modi, who has enjoyed astronomical popularity, offered a respite, leading his BJP to landslide victories in the last two elections. His supporters credit him with transforming the country into an emerging global power, matched by a robust economy that’s the world’s fifth-largest. That economy, however, is in some trouble — and fixing it will now require partners. His opponents focused on vulnerabilities despite the brisk growth, like unemployment, inflation and inequality — but his campaign offered few clues to how he might address those. "Modi hardly addressed the question of unemployment — they skirted around it,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar. It's not just that Modi will have to adapt to relying on a coalition. The election has also left him diminished after he spent a decade building a persona of absolute invincibility, said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. At the heart of his governance style has been his penchant for control, critics say, adding that Modi has increasingly centralized power. But now to stay in power, Modi will have to do whatever he can to maintain a stable coalition, meaning he may have to govern in a way that is more collaborative since the smaller regional parties in his alliance could make or break his government. The BJP's lackluster performance is “undoubtedly a slap in the face,” Vaishnav said, of Modi, who confidently predicted at his first election rally in February that the party would secure more than 370 seats — 130 more than it did. The gap between the high expectations Modi and others set for the BJP and its actual performance has left the victors looking like losers and the defeated feeling victorious. Still, Vaishnav said “we shouldn’t lose sight that the BJP is still in the driver’s seat.” To be sure, his most consequential Hindu nationalist policies and actions are locked in — including a controversial citizenship law and Hindu temple built atop a razed mosque. His critics and opponents decry those policies, saying they have bred intolerance and stoked religious tensions against the country’s Muslim community — and left India’s democracy faltering, with dissent silenced and the media squeezed. Now, his agenda, and ability to push through policies going forward could face fiercer challenges, especially from a once deflated but now resurgent opposition. The INDIA alliance, led by the Congress party, will likely have more power to apply pressure and push back, especially in parliament where their numbers will grow. “Modi is Modi. But I would say that with the attitude with which he ran the country until now, he will definitely face some problems now,” said Anand Mohan Singh, a 45-year-old businessman in the capital, New Delhi. "Some changes will be visible."

A gunman who attacked the U.S. embassy near Beirut was shot and captured by Lebanese soldiers after a Wednesday morning shootout that injured an embassy security guard, the military and embassy officials said. The attack took place as tensions simmered in the tiny Mediterranean country, where months of fighting between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops has displaced thousands along the border, following years of political deadlock and economic hardship. Local media reported that there was a gunfight involving at least one attacker and lasting almost half an hour. Joe Abdo, who works at a gas station near the compound said he heard “around 15 to 20 rounds of gunfire” while working that morning. “We ran here to see what’s happening and suddenly, the army blocked us from going up,” he told The Associated Press. No motive was immediately clear, but Lebanese media have published photos that appear to show a bloodied attacker wearing a black vest with the words “Islamic State” written in Arabic and the English initials “I” and “S.” A Lebanese security official and two judicial officials familiar with the case said the gunman appeared to be a lone attacker. They identified him as a resident of the eastern Lebanese border town of Majdal Anjar near Syria. Earlier, the Lebanese military identified the suspect as a Syrian national. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to speak to the press. The military raided both Majdal Anjar and nearby Suweiri, where they detained relatives of the suspect, but did not find other gunmen or evidence of a possible extremist cell, the officials added. The suspect was shot in the stomach and leg before being captured and taken to the military hospital in Beirut, according to the officials. A U.S. Embassy spokesperson said in a statement that one embassy security guard was injured in the attack. “With respect to his privacy we cannot say more, but we wish him a full recovery,” said the spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations. A statement from Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office said that he was informed following meetings with the defense minister and army commander that the situation was now stable and that serious investigations are underway. The Lebanese military said it deployed troops around the embassy and surrounding areas. In 1983, a deadly bombing attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut killed 63 people. U.S. officials blame the attack on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Following that attack, the embassy was moved from central Beirut to the Christian suburb of Aukar, north of the capital. Another bomb attack struck the new location on Sept. 20, 1984. In September 2023, Lebanese security forces detained a Lebanese man who opened fire by the U.S. Embassy. There were no casualties in that attack. In October 2023, hundreds of protesters clashed with Lebanese security forces in demonstrations near the U.S. Embassy in support of Gaza’s people and the militant group Hamas in its war with Israel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory for his alliance in India’s general election, claiming a mandate to move 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. “Today’s victory is the victory of the world’s largest democracy,” Modi told the crowd at his party’s headquarters Tuesday, saying Indian voters had “shown immense faith” both in his party and his National Democratic Alliance coalition. Official results from India’s Election Commission on Wednesday showed the NDA won 294 seats, more than the 272 seats needed to secure a majority but far fewer than had been expected. 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. During campaigning, Modi said his party would likely win 370 seats and his allies another 30 seats. He now depends on the support of key allies, including the Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state with 16 seats and Janata Dal (United), which won 12 seats in eastern Bihar state, as well as smaller groups. India's popular but polarizing PM Narendra Modi is extending his decade in power. Who is he? “Indian voters can’t be taken for granted,” said the Times of India newspaper in an editorial. “Voters have clearly indicated that jobs and economic aspirations matter. The economic message from the results is that jobs matter.” The Congress party won 99 seats, improving its tally from 52 in the 2019 elections. Among its key allies, Samajwadi Party won 37 seats in northern Uttar Pradesh state in a major upset for the BJP; All India Trinamool Congress bagged 29 seats in West Bengal state; and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 22 seats in southern Tamil Nadu state. The opposition INDIA coalition won a total of 232 seats. The BJP may now be “heavily dependent on the goodwill of its allies, which makes them critical players who we can expect will extract their pound of flesh, both in terms of policymaking as well as government formation,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “At the very least, the result pricks the bubble Prime Minister Modi’s authority. He made this election about himself,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a political commentator. “Today, he is just another politician, cut to size by the people,” he said in an article in The Indian Express daily. More than 640 million votes were cast in the marathon election held over a span of six weeks in the world’s largest democratic exercise. In the face of the surprising drop in the BJP’s support, challengers claimed they had also won a victory of sorts, with the main opposition Congress party saying the election had been a “moral and political loss” for Modi. “This is public’s victory and a win for democracy,” Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters. Despite the setback, Modi pledged to make good on his election promise to turn India’s economy into the world’s third biggest, from its current fifth place, and not shirk with pushing forward with his agenda. Indian markets close sharply down as early count shows Modi's party faces tighter than expected race He said he would advance India’s defense production, boost jobs for youth, raise exports and help farmers, among other things. “This country will see a new chapter of big decisions. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he said, speaking in the third person. Many of the Hindu nationalist policies he’s instituted over the last 10 years will also remain locked in place. 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. Before Modi came to power, India had coalition governments for 30 years. Congratulations for Modi from leaders of regional countries including neighboring Nepal and Bhutan flowed in, while the White House commended India for its “vibrant democratic process.” In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape, bringing Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, into the mainstream while leaving the country deeply divided. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world. His critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance while the economy, one of the world’s fastest-growing, has become more unequal. For Payal, a resident of the northern city of Lucknow who uses only one name, the election was about the economy and India’s vast number of people living in poverty. “People are suffering, there are no jobs, people are in such a state that their kids are compelled to make and sell tea on the roadside,” Payal said. “This is a big deal for us. If we don’t wake up now, when will we?” Rahul Gandhi, the main face of the opposition Congress party, said he saw the election numbers as a message from the people. “The poorest of this country have defended the constitution of India,” he told a news conference. Modi’s popularity has outstripped that of his party’s during his first two terms in office, and he turned the parliamentary election into one that more resembled a presidential-style campaign, with the BJP relying on the leader’s brand. “Modi was not just the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar. Under Modi’s government, critics say India’s democracy has come under increasing strain with strong-arm tactics used to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and says democracy is flourishing. Economic discontent has also simmered under Modi. While stock markets have reached record-highs, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefitting from the boom. As polls opened in mid-April, a confident BJP initially focused its campaign on “Modi’s guarantees,” highlighting the economic and welfare achievements that his party says have reduced poverty. With Modi at the helm, “India will become a developed nation by 2047,” he repeated in rally after rally. But the campaign turned increasingly shrill, as Modi ramped up polarizing rhetoric that targeted Muslims, who make up 14% of the population, a tactic seen to energize his core Hindu majority voters. The opposition INDIA alliance attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics, and campaigned on issues of joblessness, inflation and inequality. “These issues have resonated and made a dent,” added Aiyar, the public policy scholar.

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. His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party failed to secure a majority on its own — as it did in 2014 and 2019 — after facing a stronger than expected challenge from the opposition. But together with other parties in his National Democratic Alliance, his bloc won enough seats for a slim parliamentary majority and to form his third consecutive government, Election Commission data showed Tuesday. 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. Modi claims victory for his alliance in India’s general election Modi’s government has rejected such accusations and says democracy is flourishing. Political analysts say Modi’s victory was driven by social welfare programs that provided benefits from food to housing, and the strident Hindu nationalism that has consolidated a majority of Hindu votes for his party. Hindus make up 80% of India’s population. The economy is growing by 7% and more than 500 million Indians have opened bank accounts during Modi's tenure, but that growth hasn't created enough jobs, and inequality has worsened under his rule, according to some economists. Modi began his election campaign two months ago by promising to turn India into a developed country by 2047 and focused on highlighting his administration's welfare policies and a robust digital infrastructure that have benefited millions of Indians. But as the campaign progressed, he increasingly resorted to anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling them “infiltrators" and making references to a Hindu nationalist claim that Muslims were overtaking the Hindu population by having more children. Modi also accused the opposition of pandering to the minority community. Indian markets close sharply down as early count shows Modi's party faces tighter than expected race Conspicous piety has long been a centerpiece of Modi's brand, but he's also begun suggesting that he was chosen by God. In a TV interview during the campaign, he said “When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me.” In January, he delivered on a longstanding Hindu nationalist ambition by leading the opening of a controversial temple on the site of a razed mosque. After campaigning ended last week, Modi went to a Hindu spiritual site for a televised 45-hour meditation retreat. Most Indian TV channels spent hours showing the event. Born in 1950 to a lower-caste family in western Gujarat state, as a young boy Modi joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a paramilitary, right-wing group which has long been accused of stoking hatred against Muslims. RSS is the ideological parent of Modi's BJP. The tea seller's son got his first big political break in 2001, becoming chief minister of his home state of Gujarat. A few months in, anti-Muslim riots ripped through the region, killing at least 1,000 people. There were suspicions that Modi quietly supported the riots, but he has denied the allegations. In 2005, the U.S. revoked Modi’s visa, citing concerns that he did not act to stop the communal violence. An investigation approved by the Indian Supreme Court later absolved Modi, but the stain of the dark moment has lingered. Modi’s party well ahead in Indian elections in early vote count but opposition stiffer than expected Thirteen years later, Modi led his Hindu nationalist party to a spectacular victory in the 2014 national elections after promising sweeping reforms to jumpstart India’s flagging economy. But Modi's critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance, hate speech and brazen attacks against the country’s minorities, especially Muslims. Months after securing a second term in 2019, his government revoked the special status of disputed Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state, and split it into two federally governed territories. His government passed a law that grants citizenship to religious minorities from Muslim countries in the region but excludes Muslims. Decision like these have made Modi hugely popular among his diehard supporters who hail him as the champion of the Hindu majority and see India emerging as a Hindu majoritarian state. Modi has spent his political life capitalizing on religious tensions for political gain, said Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist and expert on Modi and the Hindu right. During his time as a state leader, he pioneered an embrace of Hindu nationalism unlike anything seen before in Indian politics. “That style has remained. It was invented in Gujarat and today it is a national brand," Jaffrelot said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed victory for his alliance on Tuesday in India’s general election, despite a lackluster performance from his own party as it faced a stronger than expected challenge from the opposition, which pushed back against the leader’s mixed economic record and polarizing politics. Modi said that his National Democratic Alliance will form the government for the third consecutive time. “Today’s victory is the victory of the world’s largest democracy" he said, speaking at his party headquarters. For the first time since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014, it appeared unlikely that it would secure a majority on its own – but the prime minister’s coalition was still expected to be elected to a third five-year term in the world’s largest democratic exercise. If Modi does have to rely on coalition support to govern, it would be a stunning blow for the 73-year-old, who had hoped for a landslide victory. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coalition led in a majority of seats Tuesday in India's general election, according to partial figures, but faced a stronger challenge from the opposition than expected after it pushed back against the leader's mixed economic record and polarizing politics. For the first time since Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014, it might not secure a majority on its own, according to the ongoing vote count — but the prime minister was still expected to be elected to a third five-year term in the world’s largest democratic exercise. If Modi has to rely on coalition support to govern, it would be a stunning blow for the 73-year-old, who had hoped for a landslide victory. Despite the setback, many of the Hindu nationalist policies he’s instituted over the last 10 year remain locked in place. In the face of surprising numbers, both sides claimed they had won some sort of victory. “People have placed their faith in the NDA, for a third consecutive time,” Modi wrote on social media platform X, referring to the National Democratic Alliance that his party heads. “This is a historical feat in India’s history.” India's popular but polarizing PM Narendra Modi is extending his decade in power. Who is he? Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress party said the election had been a “moral and political loss” for Modi. “This is public’s victory and a win for democracy," Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters. In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape, bringing Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, into the mainstream while leaving the country deeply divided. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world. His critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance and while the economy, the world’s fifth-largest and one of the fastest-growing, has become more unequal. The counting of more than 640 million votes cast over six weeks was expected to last into the night. Some 12 hours into counting, partial tallies reported by India’s Election Commission showed Modi’s BJP was ahead in 114 constituencies and had won 126 of 543 parliamentary seats. The Congress party led in 45 constituencies and had won 54. A total of 272 seats are needed for a majority. In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats, while they secured 282 in 2014 when Modi first came to power. Indian markets close sharply down as early count shows Modi's party faces tighter than expected race The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance led in 147 constituencies and won 139, according to the partial count. The Congress party is part of the INDIA alliance, which led in 131 constituencies and had won 99. The Election Commission does not release data on the percentage of votes tallied. Exit polling from the weekend had projected the NDA to win more than 350 seats. Indian markets, which had hit an all-time high on Monday, closed sharply down Tuesday, with benchmark stock indices — the NIFTY 50 and the BSE Sensex — both down by more than 5%. For Payal, a resident of the northern city of Lucknow who uses only one name, the election was about the economy and India’s vast number of people living in poverty. “People are suffering, there are no jobs, people are in such a state that their kids are compelled to make and sell tea on the roadside,” Payal said. “This is a big deal for us. If we don’t wake up now, when will we?” If Modi wins, it would only be the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister. But if his BJP is forced to form a coalition, the party would likely “be heavily dependent on the goodwill of its allies, which makes them critical players who we can expect will extract their pound of flesh, both in terms of policymaking as well as government formation,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This would be truly, you know, uncharted territory, both for Indians as well as for the prime minister,” he added. India’s election concludes with the votes being counted Tuesday. Here’s what to know Before Modi came to power, India had coalition governments for 30 years. His BJP has always had a majority on its own while still governing in a coalition. Extreme heat struck India as voters went to the polls. While temperatures were somewhat lower on Tuesday, election officials and political parties still hauled in large quantities of water and installed outdoor air coolers for people waiting for results. Outside BJP party headquarters in New Delhi, supporters banged drums and bells as the counting was underway. Earlier, party workers performed a Hindu ritual. Meanwhile, supporters at the Congress party headquarters appeared upbeat and chanted slogans praising Rahul Gandhi, the face of the party’s campaign. Speaking at the press conference with party president Kharge, Gandhi said he saw the figures as a message from the people. “The poorest of this country have defended the constitution of India,” he said. Over 10 years in power, Modi's popularity has outstripped that of his party’s, and turned a parliamentary election into one that increasingly resembled a presidential-style campaign. The result is that the BJP relies more and more on Modi’s enduring brand to stay in power, with local politicians receding into the background even in state elections. “Modi was not just the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar. The country’s democracy, Modi’s critics say, is faltering under his government, which has increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and say democracy is flourishing. And economic discontent has simmered under Modi. While stock markets reach record-highs and millionaires multiply, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefitting from the boom. Voting ends in the last round of India's election, a referendum on Modi's decade in power As polls opened in mid-April, a confident BJP initially focused its campaign on “Modi’s guarantees,” highlighting the economic and welfare achievements that his party says have reduced poverty. With him at the helm, “India will become a developed nation by 2047,” Modi repeated in rally after rally. But the campaign turned increasingly shrill, as Modi ramped up polarizing rhetoric that targeted Muslims, who make up 14% of the population, a tactic seen to energize his core Hindu majority voters. The opposition INDIA alliance has attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics, and campaigned on issues of joblessness, inflation and inequality. But the broad alliance of over a dozen political parties has been beset by ideological differences and defections, raising questions over their effectiveness. Meanwhile, the alliance has also claimed they’ve been unfairly targeted, pointing to a spree of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against their leaders by federal agencies they say are politically motivated. The government has denied this. In the financial capital of Mumbai, Mangesh Mahadeshwar was one of many surprised by how the election was playing out. “Yesterday we thought that the BJP would get more than 400 seats,” said 52-year-old who was keeping an eye on the results at the restaurant where he works. “Today it seems like that won’t happen – people haven’t supported the BJP so much this time.”  

At least 56 people were killed and nearly 25,000 suspected heat stroke cases recorded in the last three months in India, a local media report quoting federal health ministry said Monday. "There were at least 56 confirmed heatstroke deaths across the country from March to May, with 46 of them in May alone, according to central (federal) government data," local newspaper Hindustan Times said. Parts of northern India scorched by extreme heat with New Delhi on high alert According to the newspaper, officials in many states have hesitated to classify deaths from heat exposure if autopsies have been unavailable. As per the data, Madhya Pradesh has reported the maximum number of deaths at 14, followed by Maharashtra at 11. The newspaper said as many as 24,849 heatstroke cases have been reported since March 1. This year, the temperatures have been record-breaking in India. Many parts in India have been experiencing unrelenting heat wave for over two weeks in the past, with maximum temperatures hovering above 45 degrees Celsius at a stretch and even soaring beyond 50 degrees Celsius in some areas. At least 11 dead in massive fire at paint factory in New Delhi Last month India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the country would face extreme heat from April to June with the central and western peninsular regions anticipated to be the worst affected.