AHMEDABAD, India, Dec 5 (Reuters) – India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is about to win a snug majority in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s house state of Gujarat, three exit polls confirmed on Monday, cementing the occasion’s fortunes forward of nationwide elections due in 2024.

The western industrial state is a bastion of the Hindu-nationalist BJP, which has has not misplaced state meeting elections there since 1995. Modi served as Gujarat’s chief minister for 13 years earlier than changing into prime minister in 2014.

Modi stays broadly standard within the nation, partly as a result of financial progress and in addition due to his sturdy base amongst India’s Hindu majority inhabitants, regardless of critics pointing to rising inflation, unemployment and rising non secular polarisation. He is eyeing a 3rd time period in 2024.

The BJP confronted a tricky battle within the days main as much as the polls in opposition to the primary opposition, the Indian National Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which emerged in 2012 out of an anti-corruption motion.

The 137-year-old Congress occasion is anticipated to lose lots of its seats whereas the AAP is anticipated to make some features, exit polls present.

A projection by ABP-CVoter confirmed that the BJP would win 128 to 140 seats, which might give it a bigger majority than in 2017, when it gained 99 seats out of whole 182.

The Congress is projected to win 31 to 43 seats, almost half of the 77 seats it gained in 2017, whereas the AAP is anticipated to achieve three to 11 seats from zero, in line with ABP-CVoter. Results are due on Thursday.

Broadcaster TV9 Gujarati’s exit ballot projected 125 to 130 seats for the BJP, 40 to 50 seats for the Congress, and three to 5 seats for the AAP.

A projection by broadcaster News X – Jan Ki Baat confirmed 117 to 140 seats for BJP, 34 to 51 for the Congress and 6 to 13 for the AAP.

Reporting by Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad and Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Nick Macfie

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