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India’s Modi claims victory as he heads for reduced majority
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed a historic third win in a row in the country’s parliamentary elections, but his ruling alliance appears to have failed to win a large majority as predicted. He thanked voters and said he would continue the “good work” of the last decade.
Modi’s BJP-led alliance is leading in more than 290 of 543 seats up for grabs, well short of their target of 400. The Congress and other allied opposition parties have surprised observers, and are now expected to win more than 230.
The results give the lie to a slew of exit polls at the weekend that showed the BJP-led NDA alliance on course for a super majority of two-thirds of parliament, which would have allowed it to make changes to the constitution.
In his first remarks since the election, though, the prime minister was keen to stress his historic third victory.
“I bow to the people for this affection and assure them that we will continue the good work done in the last decade to keep fulfilling the aspirations of people,” he said on X.
Speaking to supporters later, he described his victory as “the biggest in the world” and said he was “very very happy today”.
But Rahul Gandhi – leader of the opposition Congress party – told reporters that Mr Modi and the BJP had been “punished” by voters at the ballot box.
Analysts attribute the BJP’s setback to rising prices, joblessness, a controversial army recruitment reform and Mr Modi’s aggressive and divisive campaign, which may have alienated voters in parts of the country.
Mr Modi had set a target of 370 seats for the BJP and 400 seats for his alliance. This was up from the 303 seats won by the BJP alone in the last general election in 2019.
However, the BJP is no longer expected to get the 272 seats on its own that are needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament.
This is a setback for the party and means – for the first time – Mr Modi would have to rely on smaller parties in the NDA to push through its agenda.
There has been speculation that Mr Gandhi might also try to form a government, but two key NDA parties have already pledged their support for the incumbent prime minister.
Some of the major developments of the election include:
- Mr Modi himself retained his seat of Varanasi, but with a greatly reduced majority
- Mr Gandhi won a seat in Kerala in the south and is expected to win a second seat he is contesting in the bellwether northern state of Uttar Pradesh
- The BJP has seen unexpected losses in Uttar Pradesh, with prominent minister Smriti Irani losing her seat
- Another defeat in the state was at Ayodhya, where a few months ago Mr Modi inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple
The election was seen by many as a referendum on Mr Modi’s decade in office, during which he has transformed many aspects of life in India, so this would be a major upset. The mood in BJP offices around the country has been described by BBC reporters as “sombre”.
In contrast, at Congress headquarters, party workers have been celebrating. The Indian markets, meanwhile, have been showing jitters – falling more than 2% – testifying to the fact that it’s not been a runaway result so far for the governing alliance.
An average 66% of voters took part in the election, official figures showed. It was the biggest such exercise the world has ever seen, with nearly a billion registered voters – about one in eight of the global population.
Voting was staggered over seven rounds between 19 April and 1 June for security and logistical reasons. Much of the election took place in extreme and deadly heat as temperatures in parts of India soared to nearly 50C.
The BJP and its rivals fought a fierce – at times vitriolic – campaign, with the prime minister denying that he was being divisive when he was accused by rivals of demonising Muslims.
Mr Modi toured the country, pointing to his achievements in areas such as delivering welfare schemes and raising India’s global profile.
Opposition parties highlighted cost of living issues, high unemployment – especially for young people – and fears that constitutional changes could disempower the disadvantaged. They also promised to stop India’s “slide into autocracy”.
A number of opposition leaders and government critics have been jailed in recent years, including Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who was taken into custody on corruption charges in April but later briefly released to allow him to campaign.
[BBC]
US funding cuts will lead to an additional 2,000 new HIV infections each day and over six million further deaths over the next four years, the UNAids chief has warned.
It would mark a stark reversal in the global fight against HIV, which has seen the number of deaths from the disease decrease from more than two million in 2004 to 600,000 in 2023, the most recent year for which figures are available.
UNAids Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said the US government’s decision to pause foreign aid – which included funding for HIV programmes – was already having devastating consequences.
She called on the US to reverse the cuts immediately, warning women and girls were being hit particularly hard.
US President Donald Trump announced the pause on foreign aid, for an initial 90 days, on his first day in office in January as part of a review into government spending. The majority of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes have since been terminated.
Many US-financed HIV treatment and prevention programmes received stop work orders, leading to the closure of mother and baby clinics in Africa, and severe shortages of life saving anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines.
Ms Byanyima said she feared a return to the 1990s, when HIV medication was scarcely available in poorer countries, and infections and deaths soared.
The US has for years been the single biggest funder of HIV treatment and prevention, and Ms Byanima thanked Washington for its generosity and humanity.
She added it was “reasonable” for the US “to want to reduce its funding – over time”, but said the “sudden withdrawal of lifesaving support [was] having a devastating impact”.
There has been no sign that Washington is listening to appeals to change course.
Traditional aid donors in Europe also plan funding cuts, and UNAids – the joint UN agency which combats HIV – has had no indication that other countries might step in to fill the gap left by the US.
Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Ms Byanyima described the case of Juliana, a young woman in Kenya living with HIV. She worked for a US-funded programme that supported new mothers to access treatment to ensure their babies did not develop the disease.
With the programme suspended, Ms Byanyima said Juliana was not only out of work but, because she was still breastfeeding her youngest child, she also feared losing the treatment she needed.
Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) said eight countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Haiti and Ukraine – could soon run out of HIV drugs after the US funding pause.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that disruption to HIV programmes “could undo 20 years of progress”.
In February, South Africa’s leading Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), warned the country could see a return to when HIV patients struggled to access necessary services for their treatment.
“We can’t afford to die, we can’t afford to go back to those years where we were suffering with access to services, especially for people living with HIV treatment,” said TAC chair Sibongile Tshabalala.
Ms Byanyima also proposed a deal to the Trump administration, offering an opportunity to market a new US-developed ARV to millions of people.
Lenacapavir, made by US company Gilead, is given by injection every six months, with UNAids believing 10 million people could benefit from it.
The profits and jobs resulting from such a deal would be hugely beneficial to the US, Ms Byanyima added.
UNAids is one of a number of UN agencies facing funding cuts.
The UN Refugee Agency has suggested it may have to lose 6,000 jobs, while Unicef has warned that progress to reduce child mortality is threatened, and the World Food Programme has had to cut rations in famine threatened regions.
[BBC]
Latest News
IPL 2025: Ashutosh stuns Lucknow Super Giants as Delhi Capitals complete one-wicket heist
Ashutosh Sharma was going nowhere. He was on 20 off 20 balls. The required rate was over 12. Then he flicked a switch and decided to make Delhi Capitals’ opening game of IPL 2025, against Lucknow Super Giants in Visakhapatnam, all about him.
With 62 needed off 30, with four wickets in hand, Ashutosh went bang, bang and then some more as he smashed 46 off his next 11 balls to lead DC to an epic one-wicket win with just three balls to spare. Arms raised he was engulfed by his team-mates as a bewildered Rishabh Pant, DC’s ex-captain now leading LSG, looked on.
LSG, sent in to bat and riding on Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh’s whirlwind knocks, had posted 209 for 8. At one point, they had looked set for much more, even 250, but the DC bowlers came back in style, conceding only 48 runs off the last seven overs and picking up six wickets. While Pooran and Marsh accounted for 147 off 66 balls, the rest of LSG’s batters managed just 55 off 55 between them.
DC were reduced to 7 for 3 in their chase and at most stages looked down and out, but they found a new hero in the debutant Vipraj Nigam, who walked out at No. 8, with 97 needed in 45 balls, and thrashed 39 off 15. He fell with DC needing 42 off 23, but Ashutosh made sure to haul DC over the line, finishing things off with a six down the ground off Shahbaz Ahmed.
Ashutosh had been Punjab Kings’ finisher supreme in IPL 2024, playing blinders one after the other. But they often did not come in winning causes, with Ashutosh falling just short of the finishing line in thrilling chases against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. Now, playing for a new team, he entered the match as their Impact Player with DC in more than a spot of bother at 65 for 5 in 6.4 overs. He started slowly, taking time to find his touch, but made sure he didn’t throw his wicket away.
Losing Tristan Stubbs didn’t help, and at 116 for 6 in 13 overs, ESPNcricinfo’s win probability for DC was 1.46%. But Ashutosh has made fighting the odds a habit. He got excellent support from Nigam, who actually got the chase going. The allrounder first took on Ravi Bishnoi, carting him for two fours and a six in the 14th over, and then hacked Shahbaz for a four and a six in the next.
While Nigam fell to fellow debutant Digvesh Rathi, Ashutosh was in no mood to stop. He went 6, 4, 6 against Bishnoi and the equation came down to a manageable 22 off 12, though DC only had two wickets in hand. It came down to the last wicket when Kuldeep Yadav was run out in an attempt to sneak a bye and get Ashutosh back on strike, but that sacrifice seemed worth it when Ashutosh hit the last two balls of that over, from Prince Yadav, for six and four to take DC into the final over needing just six.
No. 11 Mohit Sharma was on strike for the first ball, and he could have been dismissed when he overbalanced, looking to flick Shahbaz against the turn. The ball missed his outside edge and deflected off his back leg, causing Pant to fumble a half-chance for a stumping, but he took a review for lbw; ball-tracking suggested the ball would have just missed off stump. Mohit then managed to push the next ball away for a single, bringing Ashutosh back on strike. Ashutosh walloped Shahbaz straight into the sightscreen, and the DC dugout erupted with joy.
New DC captain Axar Patel had said at the toss that he was bowling first because he didn’t “want to take a risk with the dew later on”. Unfortunately for him, DC’s top order collapsed even before the dew could take effect. And it was Shardul Thakur who made the early strikes. Thakur wasn’t even supposed to be at the IPL. He went unsold at the auction, and was supposed to be playing County cricket for Essex while the IPL was on. But the injured Mohsin Khan was ruled out and Thakur found a way in.
And in his first over, he had Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel miscuing. There was excellent captaincy as well from Pant, who stationed a long-off for Fraser-McGurk. He miscued an outswinger in that fielder’s direction while attempting to go over the on side, and Ayush Badoni completed a good catch. Two balls later, Porel mistimed an outswinger to Pooran at mid-off.
Sameer Rizvi came in and creamed a cover drive first ball but fell soon after, giving the left-arm spinner M Siddharth his first wicket as DC slipped to 7 for 3 in the second over. Axar and Faf du Plessis did a repair job of sorts, adding 43 off 23 balls, but both fell in successive overs and DC were 65 for 5 in the seventh.
In IPL 2024, LSG were often found lagging in the powerplay. This season, they are on a mission to fix that, and Marsh and Pooran took on the responsibility. While Aiden Markram fell early, Marsh took on his countryman Mitchell Starc. Marsh, who is playing IPL 2025 as a specialist batter, piled on the runs in the powerplay – 43 off just 19 balls, the most he has ever scored in the phase in the IPL.
Pooran came in at No. 3 and the onslaught came from both ends. While Marsh reached his half-century in 21 balls, Pooran took 24 to get there as LSG crossed the 100 mark in the ninth over. Pooran was particularly severe on the spinners. He smashed 60 runs off just 18 balls against them, at a strike rate of 333.33. That included a 28-run over against Stubbs, with Pooran smashing his offspin for four back-to-back sixes and then a four. At the other end, Marsh was brutal against the quicks, going at 255.55 against them.
Pooran struck six fours and seven sixes in his 30-ball 75, while Marsh hammered six fours and six sixes in his 36-ball 72. When they were together, even 250 seemed to be on for LSG.
But it would all go awry, soon.
At 161 for 2 after 13 overs, the sky was the limit for LSG. ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster had them scoring 246, and they looked like going beyond. But Starc and Kuldeep brought DC roaring back into the game. Kuldeep first took out Pant for a six-ball duck, as he toe-ended straight to long-off. Starc then rattled Pooran’s stumps with a full delivery that tailed in late in the next over, the 15th. Badoni took Kuldeep on in the 17th and failed to clear long-on, and two balls later, Thakur was run out. Starc took out Shahbaz and Bishnoi in his final over, and LSG only added 33 runs from overs 14 to 19 while losing six wickets.
That LSG even crossed 200 was down to David Miller thumping Mohit for two sixes off the last two balls of the innings. That took them to 209, and for the longest time it felt like it would be enough. It wasn’t.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 211 for 9 in 19.3 overs (Faf du Plessis 29, Axar Patel 22, Ashutosh Sharma 66*, Vipraj Nigam 39, Tristan Stubbs 34; Shardul Thakur 2-19, Digvesh Rathi 2-31, Manimaran Siddharth 2-39, Ravi Bishnoi 2-53) beat Lucknow Super Giants 209 for 8 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 15, Nicholas Pooran 75, Mitchell Marsh 72, David Miller 27*; Mitchell Starc 3-42, Vipraj Nigam 1-35, Mukesh Kumar 1-22, Kuldeep Yadav 2-20) by one wicket
[Cricinfo]
A high court in South Korea has upheld the conviction of a 24-year-old man for a series of sexual crimes, including rape – after the attack was reflected on a washing machine door and caught on security footage, say reports.
The CCTV video submitted by the victim did not appear to show the crime – until investigators spotted the attack in the door’s reflection.
The man had already been indicted for other offenses, including the suspected rape of a former girlfriend and sex with a minor, reports say.
He was originally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in November but appealed the decision. The high court then sentenced him to seven years, saying that it took into account the settlement that he had reached with one of the victims.
The man was also required to wear an ankle tag for seven years after his release and has been banned from working in facilities for children, juveniles and disabled people for seven years.
[BBC]
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