(Bloomberg) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party pulled off a surprise victory in a closely-watched contest in Haryana state, giving a boost to the ruling party after a setback in national elections earlier this year and bolstering its prospects ahead of other regional polls.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 48 out of 90 seats in the northern Indian state bordering New Delhi, an unexpectedly strong showing just months after the bruising loss of its parliamentary majority, an outcome that forced Modi to govern alongside coalition allies for the first time since he took office a decade ago.
The opposition Indian National Congress won 36 seats in Haryana and was leading in another seat as counting wrapped up late Tuesday. Still, the result keeps the farm-dominated state firmly in the BJP’s grasp.
The BJP had a worse showing in separate elections in Jammu and Kashmir, where it won only 29 out of 90 seats, according to official results from the Election Commission of India. The opposition alliance won 48 seats in that contest. Exit polls had showed the BJP lagging in both contests.
Still, the BJP’s unexpected win in Haryana could offer a lift to the party and its allies going into state-level elections elsewhere in the country, including in India’s most industrialized state of Maharashtra and resources-rich Jharkhand.
Neelanjan Sircar, associate professor at Ahmedabad University, said the performance of state-level party officials appeared to be behind the BJP’s strong showing in Haryana.
But that could make winning difficult elsewhere, he said. “Because it is a state-level strategy, it cannot be replicated in other states like Maharashtra and Jharkhand.”
In a post on X, Modi praised BJP party workers in both of the elections, and thanked Haryana voters for handing the BJP a majority in the state.
The halfway mark for both legislative assemblies is 46 seats. In Haryana, a relatively small state in the Hindi-speaking belt of the country, Modi’s BJP has governed for a decade.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the only region in Hindu-dominant India with a Muslim majority, voters want Modi’s government to restore the region to a full fledged state, where the 90-seat legislature would have control over key functions like policing and healthcare. Modi’s government downgraded the region to a union territory in 2019, putting it under the control of the central government in New Delhi.
The Congress party formed an alliance with a regional party in Jammu and Kashmir. The opposition alliance has won in 48 seats in the state, that shares a contentious border with Pakistan.
“There is obviously a ground swell of anger against the BJP” in Jammu and Kashmir, said Niranjan Sahoo, senior fellow with the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. “The result clearly shows that they are unhappy with the central government and the way the state has been treated.”
The BJP has promised investment and tens of thousands of jobs in the region, which has been isolated for decades due to political instability.
(Updates with additional results)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
