India Election Results: Live Updates

It’s the day India has been waiting for after seven weeks of voting across the world’s largest democracy: the announcement of results in a general election that will chart the country’s path for the next five years and most likely well beyond.

Narendra Modi, India’s most powerful political figure in a generation, is seeking a third consecutive term as prime minister, which would make him only the second Indian leader to achieve that feat.

In the months ahead of the election, about three dozen opposition parties came together into a grand coalition, called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, hoping to pool their votes together for a stronger fight against Mr. Modi’s formidable Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., and its alliance, called the National Democratic Alliance, or N.D.A.

Mr. Modi pitched himself to voters as the man to keep India on the march, both at home and abroad. His opponents warned that his continued leadership would put India’s democracy and secular foundation in critical danger.

As the results come in, Indians will be looking closely at the trend lines for Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. In the previous election, in 2019, the party won a commanding majority, securing 303 seats to just 52 for the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress.

To pose a serious challenge to Mr. Modi, the Congress party would have to dramatically improve on its performance this election.

The B.J.P. set an even higher goal for itself in the 2024 election. But the newly united opposition coalition hoped to hold the B.J.P. under its stated target of more than 400 seats in the lower house of Parliament, or even shrink its majority.