India general elections 2024: Modi accused of stock market manipulation over exit polls

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is set to appear for a defamation case before a court in southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The case filed by Keshav Prasad, a local politician from Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that Congress engaged in propaganda by publishing full-page advertisements accusing the previous BJP government in the state of charging a 40 per cent commission for providing government projects.

Earlier, two other Congress party members – chief minister of state Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar – were granted bail on 1 June. They also sought exemption from personal appearance.

Gandhi, however, skipped the hearing, as the court set the next date of hearing for 7 June, directing his personal appearance,

The Calcutta High Court has criticised the West Bengal state authorities over post-poll violence, saying it may ask the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to stay deployed in the state for the next five years if the state fails to control violence.

“We want to ensure security of the people of the state at any cost,” said two-judge bench Justice Kausik Chanda and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray as it directed the state to allow people affected by violence to submit complaints to the Director General of Police via email.

“We want to ensure security of the people of the state at any cost,” the Bench said.

A petitioner named Rastrabadi Ainjeebi, through their lawyer, told the court that 11 people have died since the conclusion of the election.

Justice Koushik Chanda said: “Every day, we are watching in the media about post-poll violence. What happened after the last Assembly election, the same thing is happening this time also. You (State) should be ashamed.”

“If the state fails to control this violence, we have to make a decision that in the next five years, the Central forces will stay in this state.”

Senior Congress politician Sachin Pilot says Narendra Modi should not be allowed to form the next government, arguing that he does not have a mandate to do so based on the election results.

“The BJP should introspect,” he said during a media interaction.

“When the 1989 election happened, Rajiv Gandhi got around 200 seats. He was asked to form the government, but he refused saying he had not got the mandate,” he said, referring to a former Indian prime minister for the Congress party.

“Then, the next largest party was asked to form the government.”

Mr Modi’s ruling BJP fell way short of the halfway mark of 272 seats, winning 240 seats, and he must now rely on minor partners in his National Democratic Alliance to make up a majority in parliament. The NDA as a whole won a total of 292 seats.“People didn’t accept BJP’s campaign of ‘Mandir Masjid’, Hindu-Muslim issues, and ‘Mangalsutra’,” he said referring to divisive remarks made by the prime minister during the campaign.

“The central government adopted an attitude, especially against the opposition, targeting them, imprisoning elected chief ministers, and misusing (central probe) agencies like the [Enforcement Directorate] and [Central Bureau of Investigation]. All these actions have been rejected by the people,” Mr Pilot said.

The BJP accused Congress of misleading market investers after opposition leader Rahul Gandhi held a press conference alleging a connection between the Hindu nationalist party, “exit pollsters and dubious foreign investors”.

“Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha Elections. Now, he is conspiring to mislead the market investors,” said union commerce minister Piyush Goyal.

“Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy.”

Alleging that Mr Gandhi wants to instill “fear in the minds of both the domestic and global investors, so that they do not invest,” he said: “We all know equity markets react to various estimates and predictions during any elections, or for that matter any forecasts by banks and institutions. Ups and downs are normal even during a non-event.”

China has launched a formal protest over an exchange between Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi following the election results.

Mr Lai, in a post on X, congratulated Mr Modi on winning a third term, saying: “My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific.”

“Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message,” responded Mr Modi. “I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership.”

Objecting to the exchange, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “First of all, there is no such thing as ‘president’ of the Taiwan region.”

“As for your question, China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China,” she said.

“The one-China principle is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community,” Ms Mao said, adding, “India has made serious political commitments on this and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities’ political calculations. China has protested to India about this.”India “has diplomatic relations with China.

“China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. This position is very clear and India knows this well,” she said.

While in a joint statement on Wednesday the INDIA alliance said it had decided to “take appropriate steps at the appropriate time”, indicating a willingness to sit in the opposition, not all parties in the bloc have given up hope of forming the government.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, often referred to as a reluctant opposition alliance partner, is making attempts to breach the citadel of prime minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance, according to the Indian Express.

She has requested Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to reach out to key government allies, including Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, who also shared good relations with Mr Yadav’s late father Mulayam Singh.

Two senior TMC leaders – Derek O’ Brien and Abhishek Banerjee – met Mr Yadav in New Delhi for a follow-up, reported the outlet citing sources.

India’s opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has demanded an investigation into sharp stock market moves towards the end of the just-ended national elections, alleging that prime minister Narendra Modi gave misleading investment advice.

Mr Modi’s alliance won the vote with a far smaller majority than the landslide forecast by exit polls last weekend.

Projections made by Saturday’s exit polls sent stock markets surging on 3 June, with the NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex jumping 3.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively, a day before the Election Commission counted votes and declared results, dragging the markets back down again.

Mr Modi and some of his ministers had said during campaigning that the markets would surge when results were declared on 4 June, with home minister Amit Shah saying in a television interview, “buy before June 4, they will shoot up”.

Mr Gandhi told reporters: “We are interested in having a JPC to investigate the role of the prime minister, home minister, BJP members.” He was referring to comments made by them during the campaign and a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.

“We want to understand who are the foreign investors who did these trades?” he said.

Mr Modi’s outgoing trade minister Piyush Goyal returned the accusation, saying that it was Mr Gandhi who was misleading investors.

“He is worried that Modi is coming back to power… He is pressuring foreign investors to not invest in the country,” he said. “We know equities markets undergo changes according to various estimates presented from time to time.”

On Tuesday, the markets crashed to a four-year low – down nearly six per cent – after election results showed Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lost its outright majority and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won only a narrow majority.

In Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state which accounts for 80 seats, the party won 62 seats five years ago but was reduced to 33 in this election. The opposition INDIA bloc got 43 seats, with the Samajwadi Party taking 37, a seven-fold increase over the previous election.

The Samajwadi Party has traditionally banked for support of the Muslim minority and the Hindu Yadav community of its leadership. The Yadavs are counted among the Other Backward Classes, or OBCs, a vast collection of caste groups which occupy the lower-middle and lower rungs on the Hindu caste hierarchy.

At the same time, Akhilesh Yadav galvanised the party’s workers by focusing on issues of social justice and equitable representation, organising effective campaigns, and ensuring strategic ticket distribution to candidates from diverse backgrounds.

“The party gave tickets to candidates from varied backgrounds that wanted representation,” Mr Apooranand said.

“Modi has seemingly lost his aura of electoral invincibility,” Michael Kugelman, director of South Asia Institute at Wilson Center, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“This is a leader who has repeatedly bounced back from political and policy setbacks and retained large public mandates. With the results we’re seeing, that narrative of resilience has been dealt a big blow.”

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut was reportedy slapped by a security official in an altercation at an airport on Thursday, after being elected an MP for Narendra Modi’s BJP party.

Shahana Yasmin has more details on Ms Ranaut’s election in Mandi, a seat in her northern home state of Himachal Pradesh, and won by a margin of just under 75,000 votes: