India: Alliance members back PM Narendra Modi for third term

Key members of India's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term.

The alliance — led by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  — won 293 seats in the country’s mammoth general election, the results of which were announced Tuesday.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key regional player in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, and the Janata Dal (United), which rules the northern state of Bihar, both supported Modi's name as the leader of the alliance in a meeting in New Delhi on Friday. 

Modi was expected to visit President Droupadi Murmu with allied party leaders later in the day to seek her formal approval to form the next government, news agency Press Trust of India said in a report.

Modi's BJP weakened, INDIA opposition revitalized after election 

The election — the world’s largest democratic exercise — was held in seven phases over the last six weeks.

Modi's mandate will be significantly reduced as the BJP failed to secure an outright majority for the first time in a decade.

The party secured 240 of the 543 seats in Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. 

The opposition INDIA alliance, led by Rahul Gandhi's centrist Congress party, won over 230 seats, more than what exit polls had predicted.

dvv/wd (AFP, Reuters)