Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party was on course for a landslide victory in India’s most important battleground state, early returns showed on Saturday, in a personal triumph that will strengthen his claim to a second term as national leader.
Wresting control of Uttar Pradesh would be a ringing endorsement of Modi’s stewardship of Asia’s third-largest economy after his high-risk decision last November to scrap high-value banknotes worth 86 percent of the cash in circulation.
Though premature to call the final outcome, the Election Commission of India said Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 301 of the 403 seats in the northern state, which if confirmed by results would give it the biggest majority scored by any party in the state since 1980.
Almost four in ten voters backed the BJP based on early counting, the election commission said, close to the party’s vote share in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 national election when it won the biggest national majority in three decades.
“This will be a phenomenal endorsement for Narendra Modi and will put him on track for winning the 2019 election,” Prannoy Roy, editor of TV channel NDTV said.
Investors hope victory will embolden Modi to embark on more reforms, including the launch of a national sales tax, to boost economic growth.
Modi threw himself into the Uttar Pradesh campaign after his party got off to a slow start, addressing dozens of rallies and turning the contest into a test of his personal popularity and his radical move to abolish big banknotes to rein in corruption.
Celebrations erupted outside BJP offices in state capital Lucknow and Delhi, with party workers dancing in the streets and splashing each other with coloured paints.
“This is a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s corruption-free administration and welfare measures for the poor,” Modi’s campaign manager, Amit Shah, said in a tweet.
