The party of incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared victory in India's parliamentary elections, but with most votes counted, his Hindu nationalist party will lose its parliamentary majority, according to preliminary results.
The people of the country had "expressed their confidence in his ruling coalition for the third time in a row," Modi wrote on the social media platform X on Tuesday evening.
Although Modi's Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party (BJP) gained the most votes, it will have to rely on its two coalition partners to form a government.
It is considered certain that Modi would be able to continue governing for a third term of five years, but Rahul Gandhi of the opposition Congress did not rule out talks with two of Modi's coalition partners.
The stock market suffered its worst losses in four years in reaction to Modi's set-back.
Modi's BJP alone had won 303 seats in the previous election, well above the 272-seat majority needed to govern. Five years ago, together with its allies, it won 353 seats, a whopping majority.
Before this election, Modi had set the bar high for success in the election campaign. He predicted that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, led by Modi's BJP, would win more than 400 of the 543 seats up for grabs in the lower house and expand its majority.
Instead, forecasts suggest the opposition camp have made surprising gains, though final figures have not yet been released.
Nevertheless, Modi was expected to become only the second prime minister in the country's history to rule for three consecutive terms after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first.
As India is the world's most populous country, the election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, was the largest election in the world, lasting some six weeks.
The BJP has taken a strongly Hindu nationalist stance. Critics and the opposition fear that if he is re-elected, he could try to change the constitution of the South Asian country in order to further consolidate this course.
The opposition camp has repeatedly warned of an erosion of democracy under Modi.
