MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to meet his allies on Wednesday to discuss forming the government, a day after his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority in parliament in a surprise election verdict.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats on its own in the general election, 32 short of the halfway mark in the 543-member decision-making lower house, according to official results announced late on Tuesday.
India’s NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex were down about 0.1 percent each in early trade after dropping about 6 percent each on Tuesday as the weaker-than-expected mandate for Modi triggered record foreign outflows and spooked investor sentiment on worries over the pace of reforms.
Volatility rose to the highest since March 2022 on Tuesday, before easing a bit on Wednesday.
The weakened majority for Modi’s alliance could pose challenges for the more ambitious elements of the government’s reform agenda, ratings agency Fitch said.
However, it added: “Despite the slimmer majority, we do expect broad policy continuity to persist, with the government retaining its focus on its capex push, ease of doing business measures, and gradual fiscal consolidation.”
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP won 293 seats, more than 20 ahead of the 272 needed to form a government, but Modi would now have to depend on disparate regional parties whose political loyalties have wavered over the years.
Newspaper said Modi’s halo had dimmed, with the Indian Express’s banner headline reading “India gives NDA a third term, Modi a message.”
Modi’s own victory in his seat of Varanasi, considered one of the holiest cities for Hindus, was subdued, with his margin of victory down from nearly 500,000 votes at the last general election in 2019 to a little over 150,000.
But this reduced victory may not necessarily mean reform paralysis, the chairman of a government finance panel, Arvind Panagariya, said in an editorial in the Economic Times newspaper.
“Despite the reduced majority in parliament, the necessary reforms are entirely feasible. Delivering sustained growth at a accelerated pace can only strengthen the government’s hand in the coming years,” he said.
The opposition INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi’s centrist Congress party won 230 seats, more than forecast. Congress alone won 99, almost double the 52 it won in 2019 — a surprise jump that is expected to boost Gandhi’s standing.
The INDIA alliance was also expected to meet on Wednesday in New Delhi, and discuss a future course of action.
But any efforts at government formation by the opposition were likely stymied by two of the BJP’s key allies endorsing Modi and saying their pre-poll alliance with the party was intact.
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India’s Modi, allies to meet after humbling election verdict
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India’s Modi, allies to meet after humbling election verdict
- Modi’s BJP won 240 seats, 32 short of halfway mark in 543-member decision-making lower house
- Modi would now have to depend on disparate regional parties whose political loyalties have wavered
US strikes another alleged drug-trafficking boat in Eastern Pacific
WASHINGTON: The US military said Thursday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
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