From Michael Safi at the UK-based Guardian News:

More than 600 million Indians will learn the outcome of the country’s six-week elections on Thursday, as results are released progressively throughout the day.

This year’s polls, held over seven phases starting on 11 April, have been described as a contest for the soul of India, with Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government pitted against a disparate group of opposition parties including the Congress, whose secular vision has defined the country for most of the past 72 years.

Results from 542 lower-house constituencies – one fewer than usual, after authorities discovered £1.3m unaccounted cash in a south Indian party leader’s home and cancelled the poll there – will begin to be released from 8am local time (3.30am GMT).

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