On May 30, 2024, supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held paper cutouts of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a campaign rally in Amritsar.
Narinder Nanu | AFP | Getty Images
India will start counting votes for the 2024 general election at 08:00 am. Modi is expected to be elected prime minister for a rare third consecutive term on Tuesday local time.
A series of exit polls released on Saturday showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance will win a landslide majority, a New Delhi TV poll showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance will win a landslide majority. Set the number of league seats at 365 in the House of Commons. Exit poll predictions may not always be accurate.
A party or coalition that wins at least 272 of the 543 seats forms the government.
Major equity benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex rose more than 3% on Monday and hit record highs as markets reacted enthusiastically to exit polls projecting a major victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Nifty 50 index ended the day at 23,263.90 points after touching a record high of 23,338.70 points, while the Sensex ended at 76,468.78 points after touching 76,738.89 points earlier on Monday.
It is the largest democratic event in the world, with nearly a billion registered voters. Voting began on April 19 and was conducted in seven phases over six weeks.
Under Modi’s 10-year rule, India’s economy has grown steadily, with the latest GDP data showing economic growth of 8.2% in the 2024 fiscal year ending in March.
That’s higher than the government’s original forecast of 7.6%, allowing the country to remain the world’s fastest-growing large economy.
“Modi will ride that 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 main priorities will be to boost the country’s infrastructure development, which has improved over the past few years but lags badly behind neighboring China.
“You can’t compare India’s infrastructure to China’s yet,” said Steve Lawrence, chief investment officer at Balfour Capital Group. “India will catch up, but they’re not there yet. He added that the two countries could be ahead of the curve – going head-to-head in “intellectual horsepower”.
“Both societies are hard-working, educated, smarter and understand the diversity of the global marketplace,” Lawrence told CNBC’s “Signpost Asia” on Monday.
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