Counting begins after India's mammoth election

The results of India’s mammoth general election will be announced Tuesday, BBC reports.

Hundreds of millions have voted over the past six weeks to choose a new parliament for the next five years, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third consecutive term for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

More than two dozen opposition parties, including the once-dominant Congress, are taking them on as part of an alliance called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance is leading as India counts votes after the mammoth seven-phase election – the world’s largest democratic exercise – that began on April 19 and ended on Saturday, Al Jazeera reports.

A party or coalition needs 272 seats to cross the majority mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament.

Exit polls show Modi is well on track to return to power for a third consecutive term, while the Indian National Congress party-led opposition bloc hopes to upstage him.

The Election Commission says a record-breaking 642 million voters cast their ballots in the staggered election as it dismissed opposition concerns over how the votes would be counted.

However, the voter turnout this year was 66.3 per cent, about one percentage point lower than 2019.