US praises India’s parliamentary polls, remains neutral on results

US official Matthew Miller said he hopes the close partnership between the US and India will continue.

Washington:

The United States on Tuesday praised India’s parliamentary elections, calling it the “largest democratic election in history”, but refrained from commenting on the outcome of the polls.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller praised the Indian government and its voters for successfully completing the massive electoral process. “On behalf of the United States, we want to congratulate the Indian government and the voters there for successfully completing and participating in such a massive electoral undertaking, and we look forward to seeing the final results,” he said during his daily news briefing.

Miller emphasised the US stance of not commenting on election winners and losers around the world. “I am also not going to comment on winners and losers in elections, 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 Indian people came out to vote,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is poised to form his government for the third consecutive time with the BJP-led NDA winning a majority in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won or is leading on 240 seats, and has emerged as the 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.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)