NEW DELHI, June 5. /TASS/. Relations between Moscow and New Delhi will remain robust and friendly despite the fact that Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win a majority in India’s general election, meaning it will have to form an alliance in the government, Nandan Unnikrishnan of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation told TASS.
"Modi advocates for the development of relations with Russia. But he is not the only Indian politician who is in favor of retaining and developing strong ties with Moscow. I would say that almost the entire Indian political establishment wants good relations with Russia," the political scientist said.
He noted that New Delhi always emphasizes that it will develop ties "in all power centers worldwide." "Indian-Russian cooperation plays an important role in India’s initiative to become a leading world power. Everyone supports this goal now," the source added.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 292 out of 543 seats in the lower house of the parliament (Lok Sabha) as a result of the election. This allows the NDA to form the government, as the alliance has gained over a half of the vote. However, despite the BJP, which is the major force of the party, leads in the number of mandates acquired (240), this is not enough to form a unilateral cabinet. In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats, while the alliance as a whole took 352. Now, Modi will have to build his policy in accordance with allies in the NDA. The oppositional National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.), umbrellaing 28 parties, has also succeeded in the election - it received 234 seats. The coalition’s leading Indian National Congress party, which is the oldest one, acquired 99 mandates, while it had got only 53 seats in the previous election. The opposition’s leaders say that they still hope for getting the right to form the government.