Bharatiya Janata Party supporters wear a hat with Narendra Modi’s face during a nomination rally in Kolkata, India, May 10, 2024.
Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
India began counting votes for the 2024 general election on Tuesday, with election polls showing Narendra Modi set to win a rare third consecutive term as prime minister.
Election polls released on Saturday showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance would win an overwhelming majority, with the NDTV poll putting the coalition’s seats in the lower house of Parliament at 365 seats. Exit poll predictions may not always be accurate.
The party or coalition that wins at least 272 of 543 seats forms the government.
The markets reacted euphorically to the election polls, which predicted a clear victory for the BJP. Major stock indices, the Nifty 50 and the Sensex, rose more than 3% on Monday to hit record highs.
The Nifty 50 closed the day at 23,263.90 after touching a record high of 23,338.70, while the Sensex closed at 76,468.78 after hitting 76,738.89 earlier on Monday.
With nearly a billion registered voters, this was the world’s largest democratic exercise. Voting began on April 19 and spanned seven phases and more than six weeks.
Under Modi’s 10-year rule, India’s economy posted solid growth, with the latest GDP data showing the economy grew 8.2% in fiscal 2024, which ended in March.
This was higher than the government’s initial forecast of 7.6% and kept the country on track to become the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
“Modi will ride this winning horse and focus on India’s growth in a way we have never seen before,” said Samir Kapadia, CEO of India Index and managing director of Vogel Group.
One of the new government’s key priorities will be to boost the country’s infrastructure development, which has improved in recent years but lags well behind that of neighboring China.
“You can’t yet compare India’s infrastructure with China’s. India will catch up, but they are not there yet,” said Steve Lawrence, chief investment officer at Balfour Capital Group, adding that the two countries could, however, compete head-to-head in “intellectual horsepower.”
“There are two societies that are hardworking, educated, becoming more intelligent and understand the diversification of global markets,” Lawrence told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.
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2024-06-04 06:19:51
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