Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday congratulated his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as the BJP-led NDA government looks all set to form the government for the second term at the Centre. “Congratulations to @narendramodi on a magnificent victory! We look forward to working closely with you,” Wickremesinghe tweeted. As counting of the ballots for 542 Lok Sabha seats for the world’s largest democracy is underway, the BJP seems to lead on over 288 seats while the Indian National Congress is placed second in the list with 50 seats, as per the official Election Commission trends. In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 282 seats, 10 more than the halfway mark, on its own and crossed the 300-mark with its allies. If the trends convert into seats, this would be the first time in more than 40 years in India that a party with a majority on its own will be coming back to power with a similar showing. The Lok Sabha polls that commenced on April 11 and wrapped up on May 19, saw approximately 900 million voters exercising their right to franchise and deciding the fate of around 8,000 candidates across 542 seats in the country. Out of these candidates, 724 were women and four were transgenders.
