US commends India on ‘successfully completing massive electoral undertaking’, hopes for “continued close partnership”

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday (local time) commended India on completing the world’s largest electoral exercise — the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — spread over 44 days starting from April 19 to June 1, and hoped for “continued close partnership” between the two countries after NDA’s third consecutive win – Modi 3.0.

US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, in the briefing, said, “I expect a continued close partnership between the United States and India. There is a great partnership both at the government level and at the people-to-people level, and I fully expect that to continue”, on being asked how will be US-India relations after Modi 3.0.

The BJP-led NDA has won 291 seats and the INDIA bloc 234 with the election turning out to be much closer than predicted by the exit polls which gave a huge majority to the ruling alliance at the Centre. Other parties are slated to win 18 seats.

Miller said that the US will wait for the final election results before offering any definitive comment. Notably, as per the Election Commission of India counting of votes is still going on with two seats yet to be declared in the 543 member Lok Sabha seats, with a majority mark of 272.

“The election results have not been finalised. So we will wait for the finalisation of those election results before we offer any definitive comment. I’m also not going to comment on winners and losers in elections, as in our case around the world, what is important for us and what we have seen over the past six weeks is the largest exercise of democracy in history as the Indian people came to the polls”, he said.

Miller further commended the Indian government and the voters for participating in such a massive electoral undertaking. “On behalf of the United States, we want to commend the Government of India and the voters there for successfully completing and participating in such a massive electoral undertaking. We look forward to seeing the final results…,” he said.

Answering the media on External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s indication that the Western side has made attempts to influence India’s elections, Miller said that, in no way, they attempted to influence the election.

“We always express our views clearly and openly. We express them with foreign governments privately, and when we have things that we are concerned about, we also express them publicly, including from this podium. That’s what I’ve done. But that, in no way, is an attempt to influence an election in India or anywhere else”, he stressed.

In his remarks, after most of the results came in the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the BJP-led NDA will form its third successive government and that it is the victory of the resolve of Viksit Bharat, of ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’ and of the strong faith of people in India’s Constitution.

PM Modi said at the party’s central office that it is the first time after 1962 that a government that completed two full tenures has got a third successive term in office. He said “new history” has been created after six decades. (ANI)