By Agencies
India: Tanzanian president John Pombe Magufuli has congratulated the newly elected Indian President Narendra Modi upon being elected for a second term in office.
In a congratulatory message he posted on his official twitter page, president Magufuli wrote that; “On behalf of the Government and the people of Tanzania, I congratulate Y’r Excellency Narendra Modi on y’r re-election as Prime Minister of India. This indicates the confidence that y’r compatriots have in you. Be assured of our commitment to strengthen our bilateral co-operation.”
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which based its campaign on a hardline Hindu agenda, won 208 seats and was leading on 95 seats out of the 542 seats it contested. The party has improved its performance compared with the 2014 elections when it won 282 seats. “It is not Modi’s victory, but a win of people’s hope and aspirations,” Modi said, addressing supporters at party headquarters in New Delhi. “Whatever happened in these elections is in the past, we have to look ahead. We have to take everyone forward, including our staunchest opponents.” However, the return of the right-wing party on Thursday, with a bigger mandate, has caused concern among the country’s Muslim community, who suffered attacks by Hindu vigilante groups over the past five years. Although widespread agrarian distress and record levels of unemployment had put pressure on the BJP before the vote, Modi successfully steered the campaign away from these issues, harnessing rising tensions with Pakistan to focus on national security and foreign policy and his party’s vote share increased by more than 10 percentage points.
hen it became clear that the opposition was nowhere close to challenging the BJP, he switched off the TV and said: “It’s all over”. Mohammad Ansari, who owns a meat shop in Batla House, said: “This result shows that our Hindu brothers cutting across caste lines, even the Dalits, have voted for the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ [nation] project of the BJP. If this is not a clear message of hate against Muslims, what is?” In the lead-up to the results, the opposition’s hopes were pinned on a good showing in states such as Bengal in the east and the Hindi-speaking heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Modi is the first non-Congress prime minister in India to return to power after a full five-year term. The biggest loser in these elections, however, is the principal opposition party, the Congress, which won 13 seats and was leading on 39 other constituencies. Its President Rahul Gandhi, who lost his own seat from the Gandhi pocket borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state, conceded defeat and congratulated Modi on the victory.
