Indian elections largest exercise of electoral franchise: U.S.

U.S. praises India's historic elections but refrains from commenting on lack of Muslim representation in ruling BJP

Praising India's elections, the U.S. has described it as the largest exercise of the electoral franchise in any country at any time in history but refrained from commenting on no Muslim representation from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the Lok Sabha.

General elections were held in India from April 19 to June 1 in seven phases to elect all 543 members of the Lok Sabha. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won the election and Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister for a record third straight term on June 9.

“We celebrate the election that happened in India; it was the largest exercise of the electoral franchise in any country anytime in history,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters here on June 13 at his daily news conference.

He was responding to a question on the recent election results and representation of Muslims in the Indian Parliament. Mr. Miller, however, refrained from responding to such a question asserting that this is for the people of India to decide.

As many as 24 Muslim candidates across the country have won the Lok Sabha elections this year, but none is from the BJP.

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“I am just not going to comment on the Indian elections other than what we have said before, which is the electoral matters are matters for the Indian people to decide,” he said.