India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to emerge as the largest party in two state legislatures where it has traditionally been weak, exit polls showed, thanks to intense campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Victory in the Maharashtra and Haryana state elections will make it easier for Modi to launch unpopular reforms to remove price caps on natural gas and diesel, which economists say will helpIndia balance its accounts and reduce shortages of energy.
All five exit polls released late on Wednesday said the center-right party favored by investors would emerge as the largest player in the two states when results are announced on Sunday. Two of the surveys showed the BJP with a majority, or within a whisker of one, in both states.
“Modi Magic continues. It’s a jackpot for BJP in Maharashtra,” said Today’s Chanakya, one of the few pollsters that accurately predicted the BJP’s performance in a general election in May that catapulted Modi to power.
Today’s Chanakya said the BJP would emerge with 31% of the vote and 151 seats in Maharashtra’s 288 member house. In Haryana, the party was headed for 52 seats out of 90 and a 32% share of the vote. The poll had a 3% margin of error.
State elections determine the number of seats parties have in the national upper house of parliament. The party needs to do well in a clutch of state polls until 2017 in order to gain a majority in the upper house.
By expanding the BJP’s reach beyond its traditional strongholds, a strong showing in the current elections will also advance Modi’s goal of replacing the Gandhi dynasty’s center-left Congress party as India’s default ruling party.
Congress party governments currently rule both states and the BJP broke with long alliances to stand alone in the current elections, a sign of its new confidence.
