India elections: Modi declares victory but party faces shock losses in

New Delhi
CNN
 — 

India’s transformative yet divisive Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory in national elections on Tuesday evening, but his goal of winning an unassailable majority was left in tatters after voters delivered a shock result that reduced the extent of his party’s grip on power.

“Today is a glorious day… National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is going to form the government for the third time, we are grateful to the people,” Modi told cheering supporters at his party headquarters in New Delhi, referring to the initials of his political alliance. “This is a victory for the world’s largest democracy.”

Modi is set to form a government with the help of his NDA allies – a third consecutive term and a landmark that makes him one of the most successful politicians in post-independence India.

But Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of securing the 272 seats needed to win an outright majority in parliament, a stunning upset that leaves them reliant on coalition partners to form a government.

Modi’s NDA alliance won 292 seats combined, out of which his BJP alone secured 240.

This is a personal blow to Modi, who had triumphantly vowed to win a 400-seat supermajority in this year’s election – and romped to victory the last two contests with a simple majority for the BJP, turning his Hindu nationalist right-wing party into an electoral juggernaut.

India’s opposition, who had largely been written off in the polls and by many analysts, portrayed the result as a rejection of Modi’s divisive style.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s National Congress, said early election results showed that the “country has unanimously and clearly” stated that it does not want Modi and his party to run the country.

“We do not appreciate the way they have run this country for the last 10 years so that is a huge message for Mr. Narendra Modi,” he said outside his party’s headquarters in New Delhi.

Congress led an alliance of opposition parties that tried to topple Modi. While they look set to have failed in that task, they have dented his previous aura of electoral invincibility.

Results also show they have chipped away at BJP seats, including in some of the ruling party’s traditional strongholds.

Meanwhile Indian stocks plunged Tuesday as Modi’s dream of a landslide victory slipped away, raising doubts about his ability to push through more aggressive economic reforms.

View this interactive content on CNN.com

From April 19 to June 1, more than 640 million people cast their vote at polling stations across the country, from the high peaks of the Himalayas to the remote jungles of the west.

And though turnout slightly dipped from the record levels of 2019, that a democratically elected leader won a third term speaks to his levels of popularity.

To his millions of supporters in the Hindu majority nation, 73-year-old Modi is an icon whose policies have transformed ordinary people’s lives and helped realize the nascent promise of social mobility in a country still riven by class divide.

“No one can do for us what our Prime Minister Modi can,” said BJP worker Rajgopal Kashyap, from the party’s headquarters in New Delhi. “He has come to us as an instrument of God. He will take our country forward and is the only one who can run the country.”

Over the last decade his administration has upgraded the country’s…