Narendra Modi is forming a new government in India. His alliance NDA is unanimously behind the prime minister.
Narendra Modi's expected landslide victory turned out to be a disappointment when the votes were counted after India's massive election.
His party BJP lost its majority and Modi was forced to await the decision of the NDA alliance - Modi or the opposition.
After a long meeting on Wednesday, the prime minister could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The 15 alliance parties that took their seats in parliament announced that "we unanimously choose the respected NDA leader Narendra Modi as our leader".
In a statement, NDA says they will "preserve India's heritage" and work to develop the entire country.
For Modi, it will be a change, analysts in India note. He has ruled alone for the past decade without having to take into account a coalition.
The opposition, gathered in the India alliance, had been hoping to get some or several parties in the alliance to switch sides, and they have not yet officially conceded defeat.
A few of the 543 seats in the lower house of parliament are still not officially decided, but everything points to Modi's BJP getting 240 seats - 63 fewer than in the 2019 election and 32 below the threshold for a majority.
A large part of the votes have gone to the Congress Party, the largest challenger and leading opposition alliance India. They get 99 seats, almost a doubling of the 2019 result.
After the announcement that Modi will rule for another five years, congratulations poured in from around the world - China, Russia, Japan, the EU, the UK, and the US have all congratulated and sent signals of desired cooperation.
Indian media report that Modi will be sworn in on Saturday.
Born in 1950 in Gujarat. Sold tea together with his father in his youth.
Became 18 years old and married 17-year-old Jashodaben. But just a month later, he left his wife and hometown. Instead, Narendra Modi traveled to various ashrams, isolated places for Hindus, and joined Hindu nationalist organizations.
He has never formed a family, but acknowledged for the first time in the 2010s that he was married. But the fact that he has no children is emphasized by his supporters as a kind of guarantee - so that Modi's rule would not, like the famous Gandhi family, degenerate into a dynasty.
Served as chief minister of the state of Gujarat from 2001-2014. Has been accused of ordering the police to be passive during a massacre of around 1,000 Muslims in 2002. But was ultimately acquitted by the Supreme Court.
Prime minister since May 2014.
Source: Indian media
Since the population has grown since last time (2019), this year's election in India is the largest vote in human history.
It's such a large apparatus to organize the election that the voting in different parts of the giant country was spread out over almost six weeks, from April 19 to June 1.
The election concerns the lower house of India's parliament, the Lok Sabha, which has 543 members.
The term of office is five years. The two most recent elections were held in 2014 and 2019. Both times, Narendra Modi and his BJP won, leading the NDA alliance.
The main competitor for power has been an alliance called India (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), led by the Congress Party, which previously ruled the country for several decades.
