US praises India’s parliamentary elections

Washington: The United States on Tuesday praised India’s parliamentary elections, calling it the “largest experiment in democracy in history”, while refraining from commenting on the outcome of the polls.

of the State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller praised the Indian government and its voters for successfully completing such a huge electoral process. “On behalf of the United States, we want to commend the Indian government and the voters there for successfully completing and participating in such a huge electoral process, and we are very grateful to the United States for this,” he said during his daily news briefing.

Looking forward to seeing the final result.”

Miller stressed the US stance of not commenting on election winners and losers around the world. “I’m also not going to comment on election winners and losers, as is the case with us around the world. What is important for us and what we have seen over the last six weeks is the greatest experiment of democracy in history, as the Indian people have come out to vote,” he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to form a third consecutive government on Tuesday as the BJP-led NDA has won a majority in the Lok Sabha. In the election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won or is leading on 240 seats, emerging as the single-largest party in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

The BJP’s key allies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), are leading or winning in 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar respectively. With the support of other allies, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is on its way to reach the 272-majority mark.