![\"\"](\"http:\/\/deshmediabd.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/9-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s
\nparty said Monday that exit polls from the country\u2019s marathon election showed
\nan \u201coverwhelming\u201d vote in favour of a second term for the Hindu nationalist
\nleader.<\/p>\n
About 65 percent of India\u2019s 900 million-strong electorate turned out over
\nthe six weeks of voting, the election commission said.<\/p>\n
While the country faces a nerve-jangling three day wait until the official
\ncount begins, media polls after Sunday\u2019s final round said Modi\u2019s Bharatiya
\nJanata Party (BJP) and its allies would secure enough seats to form a new
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
Modi, who fought an acrimonious campaign framed around his tough stance on
\nnational security, and other top BJP leaders made no immediate claim of
\nvictory.<\/p>\n
As the vote drew to a close, the nationalist leader spent the weekend at a
\nretreat in the Himalayas. He posted a Twitter picture of himself in a Hindu
\nsaffron robe looking out over the mountains.<\/p>\n
Party spokesman G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said the polls \u201cclearly show a huge
\npositive vote for the leadership of Narendra Modi who has served the country
\nwith unmatched dedication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat people reward good performance has once again been proved by the
\noverwhelming public mandate. This is a slap for the abusive opposition that
\nmade baseless charges and spoke lies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The BJP was not expected to match its landslide tally in 2014, which gave
\nit enough seats to govern in its own right, but leading polls projected the
\nruling party and its allies winning between 282 and 313 seats of the 543
\ncandidates elected to India\u2019s lower house.<\/p>\n
Modi\u2019s alliance had 336 seats in the outgoing parliament.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Modi referendum \u2013<\/p>\n
The opposition Congress party was predicted to double its 2014 tally of 44
\nseats \u2014 a historic low since India\u2019s independence in 1947 \u2014 but still fall
\nfar short of a claim to governing. The party has pointed to the unreliability
\nof polls in previous elections.<\/p>\n
After seven rounds of voting spread over six weeks, a huge security cordon
\nwas thrown around electronic voting machines and boxes of paper ballots used
\nfor the world\u2019s biggest election before the official count starts on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
The opposition had led an onslaught on Modi\u2019s handling of the economy and
\nfailure to create jobs during the campaign.<\/p>\n
But the vote increasingly became a personal referendum on one of India\u2019s
\nmost popular and divisive prime ministers ever.<\/p>\n
The 68-year-old leader went to scores of rallies across the country to
\nfire up his Hindu base and turn the campaign into a debate on national
\nsecurity following tit-for-tat air raids with Pakistan in March.<\/p>\n
Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi traded insults throughout the
\ncampaign.<\/p>\n
Gandhi, 48, attacked Modi over alleged corruption in a French defence deal
\nand the plight of farmers, as well as on the economy.<\/p>\n
Modi\u2019s government has fallen short on creating jobs for the million
\nIndians entering the labour market every month, while the shock introduction
\nof a sudden ban on high-denomination cash in 2016 disrupted business and
\nIndian banks are struggling with huge bad debts.<\/p>\n
Hostilities spilled over again on the final day of voting.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of security forces guarded polling booths in West Bengal
\nstate on Sunday where the BJP has made a push against the regional Trinamool
\nCongress party.<\/p>\n
An improvised bomb was thrown at one Kolkata polling station and security
\nforces intervened to stop supporters of the BJP, communists and other parties
\nfrom blockading voting booths across the state capital.<\/p>\n
In Madhya Pradesh state, in central India, a BJP worker was allegedly shot
\ndead by a Congress official in Indore, police told media.<\/p>\n
The Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies estimates that parties have spent
\nmore than $7 billion on the election, making it one of the most expensive
\ncampaigns held in the world.<\/p>\n
Much of the cash was spent on social media, where the parties used armies
\nof \u201ccyber warriors\u201d to bombard India\u2019s Facebook and WhatsApp users with
\nmessages.<\/p>\n
Fake news and doctored images abounded, including of Gandhi and Modi
\nhaving lunch with Imran Khan, prime minister of arch-rival Pakistan, as well
\nas an image purporting to show Rahul\u2019s sister Priyanka intoxicated.<\/p>\n
BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s party said Monday that exit polls from the country\u2019s marathon election showed an \u201coverwhelming\u201d vote in favour of a second term for the Hindu nationalist leader. About 65 percent of India\u2019s 900 million-strong electorate turned out over the six weeks of voting, the election commission said. While the country faces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5839,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions\/5839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}