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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hello, and welcome to a special program this half hour dedicated
00:15 to the Indian election.
00:17 Standing by for us live in New Delhi, our correspondents
00:21 Pavni Mittal with the BJP, Navneeta Kumari
00:24 at the headquarters of the Congress Party.
00:27 Also with us live today is Irfan Nooruddin.
00:30 He's the director at the Atlantic Council's South Asia
00:34 Center.
00:34 Welcome to you.
00:35 And with me here in the studio, Leela Jacinto as well,
00:39 France 34's India expert.
00:41 We hear you very well.
00:42 Thanks for joining us.
00:45 So the results are coming in thick and fast
00:49 as Narendra Modi seeks a third term in power.
00:54 Indeed, this election has been seen as a referendum
00:57 on his past decade as India's prime minister.
01:01 And although the count is ongoing,
01:02 a picture is starting to emerge.
01:05 So far, it's not the landslide that Modi and his BJP
01:09 were hoping for.
01:11 The BJP is expected to retain power,
01:14 but the opposition Congress Party
01:17 has done better than expected.
01:19 And thus, Modi's majority could well
01:21 be far smaller than forecast.
01:25 Well, let's show you the early results
01:27 as we have them for the moment.
01:28 This was according to the figures
01:31 from around half an hour ago.
01:32 And it shows that Modi's party, the BJP, have 239 seats.
01:38 A reminder for you that to get a majority in the lower
01:41 house of the Indian parliament, a party needs 272.
01:45 And before this election, the BJP
01:48 were saying their aim was to get a whole 400 seats,
01:53 at least for the moment, the BJP looking rather
01:55 far away from that goal.
01:59 Now, a short while ago, Modi himself took to the platform X,
02:03 claiming that he and his allies are victorious in the election,
02:07 even though vote counting is ongoing.
02:10 We've had that voice.
02:11 Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
02:16 People have placed their faith in NDA
02:18 for a third consecutive time.
02:20 This is a historical feat in India's history.
02:22 Well, let's go live then to the headquarters
02:29 of the BJP in New Delhi.
02:31 Pavni Mittal is our correspondent.
02:33 She's there with me now.
02:34 Pavni, just tell us a bit about the mood,
02:36 because I understand the prime minister is expected
02:40 to speak pretty shortly.
02:45 Good evening, yes.
02:46 In fact, a lot of people have gathered here waiting
02:49 for him to come in.
02:50 He's actually not coming here.
02:51 He's going to be going to a neighboring building, which
02:53 is why the celebrations and the party has moved outside.
02:58 Now, speaking of celebrations and party, look, right now,
03:01 BJP and its allies are in a majority position.
03:06 They have more than 290 seats, as we know it.
03:09 So they have a majority.
03:10 But it is a muted celebration, specifically
03:13 for people who weren't looking at this as a BJP victory
03:17 or a BJP election, who were looking at this as a Modi
03:21 victory and a Modi election.
03:22 And that sort of image and that assumption
03:27 has been punctured pretty badly.
03:29 And even though the prime minister
03:31 has gone on social media and will be coming here
03:33 to claim victory, the fact of the matter
03:35 is, at this time, it is clear there
03:38 will be a sort of coalition government.
03:40 And if it is with the BJP, then we don't even
03:43 know if Prime Minister Modi will be prime minister,
03:46 because in 20 years that he's been in electoral politics,
03:49 he's never dealt with coalition partners
03:52 when he's been up for the top job,
03:54 whether it was when he was chief minister of Gujarat state
03:58 in Western India or as prime minister.
04:00 In fact, his whole image has been
04:02 that of a strong leader who is loved and supported by all.
04:07 So a lot of hopes gashed over here today.
04:10 So muted celebrations.
04:13 Pavni, for the moment, thank you very much indeed.
04:16 Well, let's get the perspective now
04:18 from the headquarters of the opposition Congress Party.
04:21 Our correspondent Navadita Kumari is there.
04:25 And Navadita, look, you heard Pavni there
04:28 saying celebrations of a kind, but muted celebrations
04:31 with the BJP today.
04:33 What about where you are?
04:34 What's the atmosphere like among the opposition?
04:40 Yeah, the reaction over here has also
04:42 been opposite to that of the BJP headquarters.
04:45 People have been celebrating here quite a lot.
04:48 Hundreds of party workers gathered here,
04:51 especially after the midday when the election
04:53 results started to be clearer.
04:55 Just two hours ago, hundreds and hundreds of party workers
04:59 and people had gathered here to just get
05:01 a glimpse of the party leader, Rahul Gandhi,
05:04 and the president of the Congress Party,
05:08 who had come here for a press conference.
05:11 They gathered here with music.
05:13 They were dancing.
05:14 And it's a very, very special moment for the Congress Party
05:18 workers because it's a surprise win for the party,
05:22 especially in the previous two elections.
05:24 Their performance was not well.
05:26 In the last election, they only won over 50 seats.
05:29 And now, nearly 100 seats have been confirmed for the party.
05:33 So it's a big boost for the Congress Party and its workers.
05:38 Navadita Kumari, for now, thank you very much indeed.
05:41 Well, at this point in the program,
05:43 I'd like to bring in our guest standing by patiently for us.
05:46 It's Irfan Nuruddin from Washington DC,
05:51 joining us covering all developments from there.
05:54 Just step back a little bit for us, if you can.
05:57 How do you view these results compared to what
06:01 we were expecting before today?
06:05 I'm afraid I can't hear you.
06:06 Ah, I'll let our technical teams try to-- can you hear me now,
06:10 sir?
06:12 I think, unfortunately, we're having some connection issues
06:15 there with Washington.
06:15 I'll let our technical team work on that.
06:17 And I'll ask that question instead to Leela Jacinto,
06:19 who's with me here in the studio.
06:22 Leela, look, what do you make of what
06:24 we're seeing at this stage?
06:26 Well, it's been surprises so far.
06:28 I mean, nobody was expecting celebrations
06:31 at Congress headquarters and muted celebration at BJP.
06:35 It's so different from the narrative
06:37 that we've had for the past four years
06:39 and definitely on the election campaign trail.
06:43 And the surprises are on so many fronts.
06:45 Why has the BJP not done as well as they said they would?
06:50 As you said, 400 seats, that was their rallying cry
06:54 right through the campaign trail.
06:56 And now we are faced with this scenario, which we've never
07:01 seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi in before,
07:04 being a coalition man.
07:05 He is not a man of coalition politics at all.
07:09 And the Congress party's surprisingly good showing,
07:12 they seem to have come out of the woods.
07:16 And some of the things that are even more surprising
07:19 are what we are seeing in the most important state,
07:24 actually, politically, in India, Uttar Pradesh.
07:27 This is the most populous state, which
07:30 seems to be going very well for the opposition party, which
07:34 goes to show that maybe the BJP did not run a very
07:38 good campaign this time.
07:41 I don't know if we have Professor Nooruddin--
07:45 Not yet.
07:46 Not yet.
07:46 The technical problems persist, unfortunately.
07:48 I'm hearing that, Leela.
07:50 But let's talk a bit about Uttar Pradesh then.
07:52 You mentioned it already.
07:53 Largest state by population in India, is that right?
07:56 Yes.
07:56 And it has, therefore, the largest Muslim population
08:01 as well.
08:01 And there is this expression, isn't there,
08:03 that the route to Delhi, the route to power,
08:05 runs through that state of Uttar Pradesh.
08:07 Exactly.
08:07 All the big ticket candidates run from Uttar Pradesh.
08:11 Prime Minister Modi has won his seat
08:13 from the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
08:16 The head of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi,
08:19 looks set to win that as well.
08:20 He's already won from another state into Parliament.
08:25 Look, the thing about the BJP's record
08:28 is so far from what we are seeing.
08:31 It seems to be that the BJP scored too many
08:34 of its own goals.
08:36 It set up this narrative of having a supermajority of 400
08:41 seats out of 543 seats.
08:46 This triggered fears with critics of Modi
08:49 that the Constitution will be changed,
08:52 with the supermajority in Parliament.
08:54 And a lot of what we are seeing in Uttar Pradesh
09:00 is actually coming out of this.
09:01 One is the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh
09:05 has a very large Muslim population.
09:07 They are completely sidelined by the BJP.
09:10 They were never going to vote for the BJP.
09:13 The interesting thing that is happening in Uttar Pradesh
09:15 right now is one of the regional parties that is part
09:18 of the opposition alliance, India,
09:22 is winning a lot of seats, very surprisingly.
09:25 Primarily, I would say, this is a fallout
09:28 of these fears of the Constitution being changed.
09:31 You see, the Constitution of India
09:34 allows for reservations, the Indian form
09:36 of affirmative actions for Dalits.
09:40 These are the very low strata of society.
09:43 And Dalits appear to really fear a change
09:46 of the Indian Constitution.
09:48 Right, and that is something Congress have talked about,
09:50 haven't they, during this campaign?
09:51 Absolutely.
09:52 I mean, Congress stuck to message.
09:54 It has a social justice platform,
09:57 very much opposed to what the BJP ran on this year,
10:02 which was very much a polarizing,
10:05 anti-Muslim, Islamophobic messaging.
10:08 Indeed, and I am hearing now that I'm pleased to say
10:10 we're reconnected with our guest, Irfan Nooruddin,
10:15 from the Atlantic Council.
10:17 I hope you can hear us this time.
10:19 So we've been talking a little bit here in the studio
10:21 about the role that Muslim voters have played
10:25 in this election, and particularly the campaign
10:28 by the BJP that lots of people have seen as Islamophobic.
10:33 I wonder what you make of that,
10:34 and perhaps how that may be impacting the numbers
10:38 that we're seeing coming out today.
10:39 The BJP's campaign over the last month
10:44 really turned quite vicious.
10:46 And there were two things that were quite different
10:48 about it.
10:49 The first is that for the first time,
10:51 the prime minister himself was making campaign speeches
10:55 that really crossed a line in terms of referring
10:57 to Muslims as infiltrators, spreading rumors
11:01 about what the Congress party would do
11:02 in terms of seizing Hindu citizens' wealth,
11:06 our possessions, and redistributing them
11:08 to their Muslim neighbors,
11:09 really stoking a pretty ugly kind of divisiveness.
11:13 For most commentators, this both sort of resonates
11:16 because it reflects a deeply held set of views
11:19 among the BJP and Mr. Modi
11:21 over the course of his political career,
11:25 but also was a departure,
11:27 because normally what they prefer to do
11:29 is talk about progress, talk about development.
11:31 And what that suggested was that those sorts of terms
11:34 are no longer resonating on the ground.
11:36 Remember that India's election takes seven weeks.
11:40 And so there's a lot of information percolating
11:42 up to the parties where they're beginning
11:44 to adapt their messaging.
11:46 And I think the move to the communal rhetoric
11:48 was a recognition by the BJP that what they wanted to do,
11:51 which was to run on the record
11:53 and to talk about a future of India
11:55 that was gonna be very, very bright
11:57 and development-oriented,
11:59 simply wasn't ringing true with the mass public.
12:02 And so they shifted to the anti-Muslim rhetoric.
12:05 As Leela has pointed out, this simply didn't work.
12:08 Arguably, it backfired.
12:10 It might've been quite off-putting to a number of citizens
12:13 for whom that kind of politics is not attractive,
12:16 but it also really mobilized Muslim and Dalit voters,
12:20 especially in a state like UP,
12:22 to really come out and protect what they see as protections
12:25 that the state has given them
12:26 through reservations and other things.
12:29 We don't yet have the data to know quite why people voted
12:32 the way they did.
12:33 It's early days.
12:35 As tempting as it is to sort of deliver a complete verdict
12:39 on what happened over the course of today,
12:41 the truth is that we'll be sorting through the data
12:43 for a while, but it is pretty clear
12:45 that Congress has exceeded expectations dramatically,
12:49 that its pre-poll alliance,
12:51 which they label the India Alliance,
12:53 really succeeded in reducing the fragmentation
12:56 of the opposition vote,
12:58 so that the BJP was having to go up
12:59 against a single major candidate
13:02 as opposed to that opposition splitting the vote.
13:04 And this has really borne fruit for the opposition.
13:07 - If I may ask you a question,
13:10 this polarizing anti-Muslim rhetoric, Professor Nooruddin,
13:14 you know, polls have shown this in the past,
13:16 that the majority of Indian voters
13:18 do not like this rhetoric.
13:21 It does not go down well.
13:23 So it's a twofold question,
13:25 the BJP sticking with this polarizing rhetoric
13:30 through the election campaign,
13:31 and more importantly, what could this mean for the future?
13:35 I mean, will this change the BJP's position?
13:38 And also, you know, the Congress position,
13:41 the opposition position was a defensive one.
13:44 I mean, the BJP was making these Islamophobic claims
13:48 about, you know, infiltrators stealing the jewelry
13:52 and cattle of Muslims.
13:54 The Congress position was just, no, we didn't say that,
13:56 but it was not a defense of Muslims.
13:59 Are we going to see any change in this,
14:01 in, you know, getting the lessons of what's happened so far?
14:05 - Well, that's a great question, Leela.
14:08 I mean, part of it depends on what lessons
14:10 these parties choose to learn.
14:12 The BJP is what it is.
14:13 It has always been a party of Hindu nationalism
14:16 and of Hindutva.
14:17 They wear that with pride.
14:18 I don't see that changing.
14:19 That would be fundamental to what the party is.
14:22 A leopard doesn't change its spots, as it were, right?
14:24 I mean, so this is who the party is.
14:26 This is what they stand for.
14:28 They, even in the last two elections,
14:30 where they won, you know, majorities on their own
14:32 and big majorities with their coalition,
14:35 the BJP nominated no Hindu candidates
14:38 or Muslim candidates, sorry, whatsoever.
14:41 So Muslims have been sidelined by the party.
14:43 That hasn't changed.
14:44 That's not going to change going forward.
14:46 The reliance on alliance partners, though,
14:49 if Mr. Modi is going to form another government,
14:52 he's going to need partners.
14:53 Those partners, in particular, you know,
14:56 the JDU in Bihar and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh,
15:01 they have a different politics that they have to heed to.
15:04 That's a much more regional
15:05 and much more state-specific politics.
15:07 They cannot afford to alienate Muslims in the same way.
15:09 So maybe there'll be a bit of a tempering
15:12 of some of that anti-Muslim rhetoric.
15:14 For the Congress, I think they have a careful line
15:16 that they have chosen to go.
15:18 They've talked about social justice more generally.
15:21 They've made Dalit politics, in particular,
15:23 a central part of this.
15:24 They promised a caste consensus should they come to power.
15:28 Muslims are a critical part of that vote bank,
15:30 but I think to talk about Muslims explicitly
15:33 is not seen in the party's interest,
15:35 because the truth is,
15:36 while the majority of the population in surveys does say
15:39 that they pride India's plurality,
15:42 anti-Muslim sentiment in the general public runs deep.
15:46 It is a social issue.
15:48 The BJP didn't create it or invent it,
15:50 and the Congress has to be mindful of it.
15:52 So unfortunately, I think regardless of the optimism
15:56 or pessimism one feels about today's results,
15:59 Muslims' marginal position in Indian politics
16:02 remains, I think, a reality for some time to come.
16:06 - Professor Nooruddin, thank you very much indeed.
16:08 We're showing our viewers now live images from New Delhi,
16:13 from just outside the headquarters of the BJP.
16:16 Modi is there amongst his supporters.
16:20 Jubilation there, celebration,
16:22 as he said in that post on X earlier.
16:25 He is claiming victory.
16:27 Let's go back to the headquarters of the BJP.
16:30 Pavni Mittal still standing by there for us.
16:33 And Pavni, one of the things we were just talking about here
16:36 was given that it does appear the BJP hasn't done as well
16:40 as it was expected to,
16:43 it may well now have to form an alliance,
16:45 some kind of partnership in government.
16:48 What do we think at that stage that might look like?
16:51 Do we know who might be involved in that?
16:54 And how might Modi feel about that
16:56 as somebody who's governed,
16:58 holding a lot of power for himself
16:59 for an extremely long time?
17:01 - It's gonna be interesting is all I can say at this point.
17:08 There's gonna be a lot of jostling around.
17:10 You know, what's been interesting at this election
17:13 is this is the first time you've seen two blocks
17:15 sort of lay claim saying that, you know,
17:17 we have a real chance.
17:18 Because at this point, remember,
17:20 the BJP doesn't have an absolute majority.
17:22 So its allies might as well just cross over
17:26 to the opposition.
17:27 And this is, we've seen this happen many times
17:30 in Indian politics.
17:31 In fact, the irony is that it's what's happened
17:35 before at the state levels is that sometimes
17:37 opposition parties have formed the government
17:40 and the BJP has then been accused of sort of buying
17:43 or pressurizing its elected representatives to cross over,
17:48 resulting in that government falling
17:50 and the BJP, you know, forming a government there.
17:53 So if that happens the other way around,
17:56 that's very much a possibility.
17:58 So even though, you know, you will have the prime minister
18:00 state claim to victory, the Congress has also done that.
18:04 What you're gonna see over the next few days
18:06 is figuring out who can sweeten the deal
18:08 for all these regional parties who now hold key.
18:12 Coalition politics is not new in India.
18:14 What we have seen and what is different is
18:16 that for the last 10 years, you've had a party in power
18:20 that really for our practical purposes
18:22 was a party of two people,
18:23 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his deputy,
18:26 that is Mr. Amit Shah.
18:28 In fact, over the last few months,
18:30 we've seen so much of the party sort of relying so much
18:34 on Prime Minister Modi.
18:35 I mean, you know, a few months ago,
18:37 India held the Cricket World Cup over there.
18:40 You know, the biggest matches were held
18:42 in a stadium called the Narendra Modi Stadium.
18:44 In January, when French President Emmanuel Macron
18:47 came to visit, his rally with Prime Minister Modi
18:50 was a sort of, you know, him claiming victory,
18:52 saying, you know, I've put India on the world stage.
18:55 When you have welfare programs giving free food
18:59 and grains to poor people,
19:00 those bags of grains go in a bag, you know,
19:04 with Prime Minister Modi's photograph on it.
19:07 In fact, even the BJP's manifesto says
19:10 this is the guarantee of Prime Minister Modi
19:12 and has dozens of photographs of the Prime Minister.
19:15 So you're going to see a lot of soul searching
19:18 and you're also going to see a lot of jostling
19:20 because alliance partners will want leverage.
19:23 This is the first time that Prime Minister Modi
19:26 will have to deal with that when he is up for the top job.
19:29 - Pavni Mittal, for now, thank you very much indeed.
19:34 I want to cross back to the headquarters
19:36 of the Congress Party and speak to Navadita Kumari.
19:39 But just before we do, I'd like to play everybody
19:41 a soundbite from earlier on today.
19:44 This is from the head of the Congress Party.
19:48 Let's have a listen to a little of what he was saying
19:49 and then we'll bring those thoughts to Navadita.
19:52 - The fight is to save the constitution.
19:58 I'll tell you the truth.
20:00 It has been on my mind since the start
20:03 when the BJP cancelled our bank account,
20:06 put chief ministers in prison, dispelled the party.
20:11 It was on my mind that the people of India
20:15 would stand together to fight for their constitution.
20:19 I will stand with them.
20:21 - And Navadita Kumari with the Congress Party.
20:24 Look, what Raul Gandhi there was talking about
20:26 is these complaints that bank accounts
20:30 run by members of the Congress Party
20:32 were closed down during this election campaign.
20:35 They say effectively it was a crackdown on the opposition.
20:39 Do we know at this stage whether that's had an impact
20:43 at polling stations, whether that's had an impact
20:45 on this election?
20:46 - Definitely the opposition parties and leaders
20:51 have been accusing the government of using state machineries
20:58 and constitutional institute to harass opposition leaders.
21:02 And especially in the last couple of months,
21:04 two chief ministers of different states,
21:07 Jharkhand and Delhi, have been arrested
21:10 after investigation against them on financial crimes
21:14 or related financial crimes.
21:17 So the opposition parties have been telling
21:20 that the government is even using
21:23 the Election Commission of India,
21:25 which is supposed to be impartial body
21:29 and been given the responsibility
21:31 of conducting a free and fair election
21:34 of ignoring hate speeches by prime minister himself
21:37 and his ruling party in several incidences.
21:41 And also they have been saying just now,
21:44 as we heard the president of Congress Party saying
21:47 that their funds were frozen, their accounts were frozen.
21:51 So it had a big impact on this election people,
21:54 even when the national news television
21:58 were not showing the anger of the people,
22:00 but definitely today the votes and its result
22:04 has shown the anger of the people against these crackdowns.
22:09 - Thank you, Navidita.
22:11 You know, a very important point,
22:13 the democratic backsliding.
22:15 And I have a question for you, Professor Nooruddin.
22:18 You know, the democratic backsliding was very well known
22:21 in Washington and the West.
22:23 Do you think these elections and what the messaging
22:27 has been so far is going to change
22:30 how the West interacts with Modi
22:32 because the West has pretty much let him go?
22:37 - The West has, you know,
22:39 I'm struck by how much things change in a year.
22:42 Last June, Mr. Modi was on his way to Washington DC
22:46 for a state dinner and a state visit
22:49 being fettered by the president,
22:51 joint address to both houses of Congress.
22:54 He followed that up in July by being the chief guest
22:56 at Bastille Day in Paris.
22:59 And now a year later,
23:00 his party has really suffered a pretty significant defeat.
23:04 It's easy to talk about the NDA Alliance
23:06 possibly being able to form a government for the third term,
23:08 but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the BJP
23:12 on its own, Mr. Modi's party,
23:14 had 303 seats in parliament.
23:17 At current trends, that number is going to be under 240.
23:21 That's a full 20% of their seats lost.
23:24 Their national vote share is on track to be lower
23:27 than it was a while ago.
23:29 So to the extent that Paris and London and Washington
23:34 were saying, "Listen, we may not like some of the stuff
23:38 "he says, some of the things that his party says,
23:40 "but he's got the national mandate.
23:42 "He is clearly the only leader for India."
23:45 That narrative is punctured by what has happened today.
23:50 And I think for a lot of the critics in cities,
23:53 in capitals around the world that are saying,
23:55 "Hey, it's important that we work with India.
23:58 "India is a critical partner for the 21st century.
24:00 "It's critical to our goals on climate change,
24:03 "globalization, accounted to China,
24:06 "but we have to really ask difficult questions
24:08 "of democratic backsliding, human rights,
24:11 "religious minorities in these countries."
24:13 Maybe it'll embolden those civil society organizations,
24:16 think tanks, journalists,
24:18 to ask harder questions about India,
24:21 even if Mr. Modi is able to come back for a third term
24:24 in office.
24:25 It just really does change the way in which I think
24:28 lots of people are going to now think about
24:30 what's happening in India.
24:33 - Mr. Nooruddin, thank you very much.
24:35 Indeed, we only have a few minutes left, unfortunately.
24:37 I'd like to give those few minutes, if I may,
24:39 to you, Leela, with me here in the studio.
24:41 Look, as I've said, counting is still underway,
24:45 but this does look like this was not the result,
24:48 not only clearly that Modi didn't want,
24:50 but one that pollsters weren't expecting either.
24:53 Can you just give us a sense what the next few days,
24:56 few weeks are going to look like now in India?
24:59 I don't know, trying to form a coalition government.
25:01 What are we looking at in high politics right now?
25:04 - Possibly, possibly a lot of coalition talks.
25:07 If the opposition were to form,
25:10 try to form government,
25:12 that would mean a lot of sharing between
25:14 very many different political parties.
25:17 The opposition has beaten all the expectations
25:20 of staying united.
25:21 They divided the seats running for this election in a way,
25:25 and they held it together in a way
25:26 that really surprised people.
25:29 That will come under strain
25:31 should they have to form a government.
25:35 And if the BJP has to get into coalition,
25:39 it's two biggest parties.
25:41 They have substantial, very experienced leaders
25:45 of these parties.
25:46 They're not doormats.
25:48 The BJP, that's not its style
25:51 of negotiating with its partners.
25:54 But one final thing.
25:56 We were talking about how this election
25:59 was not really free and fair.
26:01 And the fact that we are seeing all these nuances right now
26:06 is really testimony to the fact that the voters spoke,
26:12 and two civil society and independent journalists
26:15 really did their bit.
26:17 In India, the mainstream media is mostly owned
26:20 by big industrialists who are close to Modi,
26:23 and they kept that line.
26:25 But the message came out from independent journalists,
26:29 YouTube influencers, and in a way,
26:32 it has shown the strength of Indian democracy,
26:35 despite all the odds that the onslaught that it had.
26:38 - Right, I think that's a good moment
26:39 to leave our special program here.
26:41 Thank you very much indeed, Leela Jacinto with me here
26:43 in the studio, Professor Nooruddin joining us
26:46 from Washington, DC, and our correspondents as well,
26:49 Navadita Kumari at the headquarters of the Congress Party
26:52 and Pavni Mittal at the headquarters of the BJP.
26:56 Thanks to all of you, and thanks to our viewers as well
26:58 for watching this special half hour
27:00 focused on the Indian elections.