Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alliance has raced to a majority in early vote counting trends in the general election but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls, TV channels showed.
Exit polls projected Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would register a big victory, with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) seen getting a two-thirds majority and more.
On Tuesday, TV channels showed the NDA was ahead in nearly 300 of the 543 elective seats in parliament, a simple majority, in early counting. The opposition INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party was leading in over 200 seats, higher than expected.
Only about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the total votes had been counted at the time, TV channels said.
India has started counting votes from its staggered, seven-week election. (AP PHOTO)
BJP alone accounted for nearly 250 of the seats in which the NDA was leading, compared to the 303 it won in 2019. Trends also showed Modi leading first, then trailing and leading again in his seat in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
The first votes counted were postal ballots, which are paper ballots, mostly cast by troops serving outside their home constituencies or officials away from home on election duty.
This year, postal votes were also offered to voters over 85 years of age and people with disabilities to allow them to vote from home.
Counting is expected to last several hours as the large majority of votes polled in electronic voting machines or EVMs are taken up after the first 30 minutes of counting postal ballots.
"These are very early trends, we are going to see better results as the day progresses," Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.
Vote counting centres across India have been guarded by a large police presence. (AP PHOTO)
Nearly one billion people were eligible to vote in the seven-phase, seven-week poll that began on April 19 and was held in searing temperatures touching nearly 50C in some parts.
More than 66 per cent of registered voters - 642 million - turned out, just one percentage point lower than the previous election in 2019, squashing pre-poll concerns that voters might shun a contest thought to be a foregone conclusion in Modi's favour.
Modi, 73, who first swept to power in 2014 by promising growth and change, is seeking to be only the second prime minister after India's independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to win three straight terms.
He began his campaign by showcasing his record in office including economic growth, welfare policies, national pride, Hindu nationalism and his own personal commitment to fulfilling promises which he called "Modi's Guarantee".
However, he changed tack after low voter turnout in the first phase and accused the opposition, especially the Congress party, which leads an alliance of two dozen groups, of favouring India's 200 million Muslims - a shift analysts said made the campaign coarse and divisive.
They said the pivot may have been aimed at firing up the Hindu nationalist base of Modi's BJP to draw them to vote. Modi defended himself against criticism that he was stoking divisions between Hindus and Muslims to win votes and said that he was only faulting the opposition campaign.
The opposition INDIA alliance denied it favoured Muslims in the Hindu-majority country and said Modi would destroy the constitution if he returned to power and end affirmative action enjoyed by the so-called backward castes. The BJP rejects this.