What Happened Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earned another five years in power with a decisive victory in India's general elections . The BJP is expected to win 300 of the 542 contested seats in the Lok Sabha, the Parliament's lower house; just 272 seats were needed for a majority. The Indian National Congress meanwhile is expected to win just 50 or so seats. Modi declared victory while Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi conceded defeat. The BJP retained its presence in its strongholds of northern and western India. This includes facing down a challenge in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most politically consequential state, where an unlikely alliance between two bitter regional rival parties failed to stop the BJP from winning a majority of the state's 80 seats.