India in shock as election leaves Narendra Modi's majority on a knife-edge

ITV News Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports from India as votes continue to be counted

At the start of India's election campaign the only question people were asking was by how much Narendra Modi could win. How big a majority he would achieve.

On Tuesday as the votes are finally being counted, although there were mutterings that his BJP party hadn’t done as well as expected, it has come as a huge shock to his supporters to see that not only does it look like Modi lost his parliamentary majority but to form the next government he might have to enter a coalition.

That means there is even a question mark over whether Narendra Modi will be the next prime minister of India.

This is a man whose approval ratings have apparently been the envy of global leaders at around 70%.

Perhaps those ratings like the exit polls have been hugely exaggerated.

The winners of this election appear to be the coalition of opposition parties which ran under the INDIA banner.

It looks like they have successfully motivated the country's minorities and rural communities to vote for change.

They did not spend the billions of the BJP on slick marketing and social media propaganda but it looks like they have made people question whether Modi really is, as he promises, the answer to their prayers and problems.

There will also have been millions of voters who after ten years of Modi rule will have questioned whether their lives have improved and will be concerned with the autocratic direction in which he was taking the country.

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