In India's last general election in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party won 303 of the 543 seats in the parliament, nearly six times as many as the main opposition Indian National Congress. This was a bitter electoral blow to the once-dominant Indian National Congress, which has seen a significant decline in recent years and exit polls for this year's election did not project it to perform as well.
But early results on Tuesday showed the BJP leader far stronger than expected. The party and its allies were leading in about 230 constituencies, a dramatic turnaround that sparked jubilation at the party's headquarters in New Delhi, where supporters cheered every time television stations announced a new lead for a Congress candidate.
“Whatever the final outcome, one thing is clear: this is a moral victory for the Indian National Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi and a defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party,” said Robin Michael, a political activist with Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While there is no sign that the Indian National Congress and its opposition alliance will win a majority to oust Modi, party members say it has dented his aura of invincibility. They praised Gandhi, the Indian National Congress supremo and great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first post-independence prime minister.
Last year, when Mr. Gandhi tried to boost his own profile by leading long marches across India, the Bharatiya Janata Party embroiled him in a legal battle and expelled him from parliament. He was later reinstated to his seat by India's Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Mr. Gandhi was expected to win a seat in the parliamentary elections in the southern state of Kerala.
Long at the center of Indian politics, the Congress party has struggled to find a direction and offer an ideological alternative to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has faced rebellions and infighting and periodically soul-searched whether to rally behind a new face, only to cling to its hereditary leadership.
Mr. Gandhi had unexpectedly set a target for his party this year of doubling the 52 seats it won in 2019. By late Tuesday afternoon, the party was leading by nearly 100 seats.
“We will stop Modi from making a mockery of the country and pitting its people against each other,” said Sandeep Mishra, an activist with the Indian National Congress headquarters, adding that “Indians are fed up with Modi.”
