India’s ruling party likely to win key state election

PM Modi during the state visit of the President of the Republic of Singapore to India, 2015. (Photo By Narendra Modi – State Visit of the President of the Republic of Singapore to India, CC BY-SA 2.0)

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to maintain its hold on the western state of Gujarat despite predictions by many analysts of a close fight.

By midday Monday, India’s Election Commission showed that the BJP was ahead in the counting for 102 seats, well over the 92 seats needed to form a majority government in the 182-seat state assembly. The BJP has ruled the state for two decades, with Modi himself leading it for 10 years.

The main opposition Congress party was leading in 74 seats, a jump from the 61 seats it held previously.

The BJP was also comfortably ahead in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

Modi headlined his party’s campaign, especially in his home state of Gujarat.