India’s leader is on track for a new term

Exceeding all expectations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party took a commanding lead in the country’s parliamentary elections, which had a record turnout of 66 percent. India’s stock market rose 2 percent to a record high.

Mr. Modi framed the showing as a triumph by and for ordinary Indians, over those who write off the poor and downtrodden.

“If someone is victorious, it is India,” Mr. Modi declared in a thunderous speech to workers in his Bharatiya Janata Party outside its headquarters in New Delhi. “If someone is victorious, it is democracy. If someone is victorious, it is the electorate.”

Concession: “Narendra Modi and the B.J.P. have won,” said Rahul Gandhi, leader of the crushed Congress Party. He even lost his seat in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, which his family’s political dynasty had held for decades, but won a second seat he contested in Wayanad, Kerala.