India

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

US on Tuesday (local time) commended India on completing the world’s largest electoral exercise – 2024 Lok Sabha polls spread over 44 days starting from April 19-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 is poised to win 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

Ani service

Recent Posts

Taiwan cracks down on Chinese nationals submitting forged documents for entry

The National Immigration Agency (NIA) of Taiwan has revealed that it had uncovered 124 instances…

12 hours ago

Trial to import petrol, kerosene from India via petro-pipeline from India starts in Nepal

Trial to import petroleum products from India via the expanded Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline following the completion…

13 hours ago

Afghanistan Taliban targets “several points” in Pakistan, tensions increase

Afghanistan's Taliban forces targeted "several points" in Pakistan on Saturday, Taliban said, days after Pakistani…

13 hours ago

Bangladesh imposes restrictions on journalists’ access to Secretariat

Bangladesh interim government has cancelled the accreditation card of journalists due to security reasons. As…

15 hours ago

Jyotiraditya Scindia and FM Sitharaman discuss plans to transform India Post into profitable logistics company

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday held a meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in…

16 hours ago

Taiwan’s presidential office holds “tabletop” exercise simulating military escalations by China

Taiwan's presidential office conducted a "tabletop" exercise on Thursday simulating military escalations by China. The…

16 hours ago