Iran Press/Asia: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in first place on 38.1 percent with three quarters of votes counted in India's election, national election commission data showed.
The BJP and its coalition allies were leading in at least 286 seats, the commission's figures showed, above the 272 needed for a lower house parliamentary majority but significantly lower than their joint total of 353 after the last election in 2019.
Modi, 73, said at the weekend he was confident that "the people of India have voted in record numbers" to re-elect his government, a decade after he first became prime minister.
But stocks slumped over seven percent on India's benchmark Sensex index in afternoon trade, after opposition parties appeared to have put up a better-than-expected fight, suggesting a reduced majority for Modi's BJP.
Shares in the main listed unit of Adani Enterprises – owned by key Modi ally Gautam Adani – dropped 25 percent.
Modi's opponents have struggled to counter the BJP's well-oiled and well-funded campaign juggernaut, and have been hamstrung by what they say are politically motivated criminal cases aimed at hobbling challengers.
US think tank Freedom House said this year that the BJP had "increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents".
Many of India's Muslim minority are increasingly uneasy about their future and their community's place in the constitutionally secular country.
Modi himself made several strident comments about Muslims on the campaign trail, referring to them as "infiltrators".
The polls were staggering in their size and logistical complexity, with voters casting their ballots in megacities New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as in sparsely populated forest areas and the high-altitude territory of Kashmir.
Votes were cast on electronic voting machines, so the tally will be rapid, with results expected later Tuesday.
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