Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Narendra Modi, re-elected Prime Minister of India in the elections that ended on June 4.
In a phone call, Bibi and his Indian counterpart agreed to “strengthen the bilateral bond” and “take relations to the highest level.”
The Hindu nationalist leader obtained the unanimous support of his partners to lead the coalition that plans to form the future Government of India, after a meeting of its main leaders in New Delhi, one day after the counting of the general elections.
“We are proud that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA, ruling party) has fought and won with unity the 2024 Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi”the coalition said in a statement released at the end of the meeting.
“We all unanimously choose Narendra Modi as our leader,” the document added, certifying that the president will have the necessary support to be appointed prime minister for the third consecutive time.
Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is expected to will be sworn in again as prime minister this Saturday, June 8, according to Indian media.
The BJP was the most voted force in the general elections in India and won 240 seats in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament or Lok Sabha, according to the results published yesterday by the Electoral Commission after more than fifteen hours of counting.
However, this figure does not reach the mark of 272 seats necessary to form a government alone, which is why it requires the support of its NDA partners to govern for the first time. The ruling coalition has around 290 parliamentarians. The INDIA coalition, led by Mahatma Gandhi’s historic party, the Indian National Congress, won 243 seats.
This will be the third consecutive Government of Modi, who first came to power in 2014, when his party achieved an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections with 282 seats.
Five years later, in 2019, the BJP gained 303 parliamentarians, allowing it to govern alone again.
However, It will be the first time in Modi’s political career that the leader is forced to make agreements with his allies to governcreating a relationship of dependency that until now had been totally unknown to him.
Among the main challenges that the future prime minister of India will face are inflation and unemployment, while maintaining the rapid economic growth of this country that aspires to become the third largest economy on the planet during the next term.
