India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won three crucial state elections and unseated the opposition in two of them, strengthening Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a third term in office.
The BJP retained power in Madhya Pradesh, a central state with 56 million voters, and wrested control of the state legislatures from its rival, the Indian National Congress, in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The results from the Election Commission of India on Sunday exceeded exit polls’ predictions.
The Congress party was able to flip the southern Indian state of Telangana, where a regional party that had held power for two consecutive terms conceded defeat.