Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to meet NDA allies over dinner before counting
With exit polls pointing to a clear victory for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP’s top two leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, were expected to meet the alliance’s partners over dinner in New Delhi on Tuesday. Shah was also due to meet BJP ministers that evening.
Who was expected
Party sources said those likely to attend included Nitish Kumar, who is Bihar’s Chief Minister and heads the JD(U); Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena; Sukhbir Singh Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal; and Ram Vilas Paswan, who leads the Lok Janshakti Party.
Why the meeting mattered
The dinner was scheduled two days before votes were to be counted. It was seen as significant because only three of the nine exit polls had shown the BJP winning a majority on its own: Chanakya-News 24, India Today-Axis-My India and News18-IPSOS. Three others, ABP-Nielsen, Neta-NewsX and Republic-C Voter, put the BJP’s own tally well short of the halfway mark. All the polls, however, agreed that the NDA under Modi would return to power.
What happened next
Votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election were counted on 23 May 2019. The BJP won 303 of the 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister on 30 May 2019.
See also: more election news
Originally published on 21 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.
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