Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared victory in parliamentary elections, however, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure a national majority and experienced big losses in key states, signifying a significant drop in the political landscape that the party has been in control of for the last ten years.

The BJP has emerged as the largest party in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament. Despite comfortably securing this position, the party’s performance in the recent election fell short of its achievements in both 2014 and 2019, as election authorities counted 640 million votes within a single day on Tuesday following a six-week-long election period.

Hence, Modi, who is set for a third consecutive term, should establish a government with his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies.

“Today is a glorious day… the 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. 

Modi’s NDA alliance won 292 seats combined, out of which his BJP secured 240, falling short of the 272-seat mark that signifies a majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, the opposition INDIA alliance, led by the Indian National Congress party, has won 223 seats.

The figures stand in sharp contrast with the outcome of 2019, when the NDA led by Modi’s BJP secured a total of 353 seats, with the BJP alone claiming 303 of them.

Rahul Gandhi, the main face of the Congress, said that the election outcomes indicate a resounding and unequivocal message from the nation, stating its disapproval of Modi and his party governing 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 Narendra Modi,” he said outside his party’s headquarters in New Delhi.

The results which were announced on Tuesday come as a personal blow to Modi, as he had confidently promised to secure a 400+ seats super majority in this year’s election.

In the previous two contests, he had easily emerged victorious with a simple majority for the BJP, transforming his Hindu nationalist right-wing party into a formidable force in the electoral arena.

Indian political analysts are calling the results as a difficult win for Modi and the BJP, but an honorable defeat for Congress and INDIA.

Modi sparked wide condemnations from activists and rights groups around the world in March after he made a speech during an election rally in the western state of Rajasthan’s Banswara constituency, where he called Muslims “infiltrators” in the country.

Tuesday’s results revealed that the people of Banswara voted the hate out as the BJP lost the constituency, while Rajkumar Roat from the Bharat Adivasi Party won.

In India’s most populous state, the north state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the BJP failed to secure majority seats out of the total 80 seats from the state, winning only 33 seats, while the socialist Samajwadi Party (SP) won the maximum 37 seats, which causes major concerns for the BJP for the upcoming UP state elections in 2025.

Tuesday’s results also came as an eye-opener for the exit polls by Indian news channels which, before the votes were counted, predicated a landslide win for the BJP.