Who will lead India? World’s largest nation begins a mammoth day of vote counting after weeks-long election

Hundreds of millions of votes cast, more than six weeks of polling, and billions of dollars spent: India on Tuesday will declare a new leader after a mammoth nationwide election that has become a referendum on the last decade of leadership by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His powerful right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a supermajority in the lower house of parliament – or Lok Sabha – a goal which, if successful, would give it an unstoppable mandate to further enshrine its Hindu-nationalist agenda, deepening India’s move away from its secular foundations.

By Tuesday afternoon, early results showed the BJP in a comfortable lead — but the main opposition Indian National Congress was also performing better than some analysts expected, reflected in the buoyant mood at the party headquarters in Delhi.