NEW DELHI – The Latest on India’s general election (all times local):
7:15 p.m.
Voting in India’s mammoth national election has ended with the seventh and final phase of a grueling poll that lasted more than five weeks, with exit polls predicting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and its allies will win the right to govern for another five years.
Vote counting begins on Thursday, and the election result will likely be known the same day.
Exit polls by two leading television news channels, Republic and TimesNow, projected a victory for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies with 287 to 305 seats out of 543 — far ahead of the 272 seats needed to form the next government.
The election is seen as a referendum on Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP’s main opposition is the Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has produced three prime ministers.
California football coach arrested after students make disturbing discovery at school
Maryland dad blamed ‘Satan’ after 2-month-old daughter died from horrific head trauma
Trump offers update on White House press secretary sweepstakes
Trump unloads on AOC, Mamdani for laughing during sacred 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero
GOP gov candidate recounts miracle water landing as dispatch audio reveals desperate search for sinking plane
Trump says Lindsay Clancy case is a ‘state situation’ following attorney’s pardon plea
Charlie Kirk statue defaced with red paint, Jesus crossed out days after 1-year mark of assassination
Arrest rips apart media narrative on death of Black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree
Trump tells Zelenskyy to stop doing ‘one thing’ during attacks on Russia
Election chaos in this red state just got even stranger for Republicans after Supreme Court ruling
The Left Loves ‘Land Acknowledgements’: Here’s One That Honors Our Forefathers and Actually Tells the Truth About Native Tribes
Arizona Corrections Officer Arrested for Smuggling 5,400 Rounds of Ammo for Mexican Drug Cartel
You’ve Never Heard of This Potential US Partner, But Their Minerals Could Help Us Take on China
3 House Democrats Visit ICE Detention Center to Meet with Illegal Aliens with Deportation Orders
Trump gives Smithsonian days to replace ‘strange modernist sculpture’ with Founding Father
___
7:30 a.m.
Indians are voting in the seventh and final phase of national elections, wrapping up a 6-week-long long, grueling campaign season with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party seeking reelection for another five years.
The voting on Sunday also covers Modi’s constituency of Varanasi, a holy Hindu city where he was elected in 2014.
The election is seen as a referendum on Modi’s five-year rule. He has adopted a nationalist pitch in trying to win votes from the country’s Hindu majority by projecting a tough stance against Pakistan, India’s Muslim-majority neighbor and archrival.
The Congress and other opposition parties are challenging him over a high unemployment rate of 6.1% and farmers’ distress aggravated by low crop prices.
Counting of votes is scheduled for May 23.
Story cited here.
