Narendra Modi’s party has claimed victory in state polls in Delhi, regaining control of the capital’s regional government for the first time in almost three decades and buoying the prime minister ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump next week.
Delhi, a territory of 22mn that includes India’s seat of government in New Delhi, has long eluded Modi. While his Bharatiya Janata party holds all of the territory’s seats in the national parliament, its legislative assembly was most recently controlled by the populist Aam Aadmi party.
The BJP secured at least 40 seats out of a total of 70 in Wednesday’s election, according to results published on Saturday by India’s election commission. It has the lead in another eight seats and is heading for a landslide. The AAP took at least 17 seats.