Indian expats in the UAE were glued to their TV sets and devices, with many taking a day off or working from home as residents watched the 2024 general election results with rapt attention.
The ongoing counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday created a roller coaster-like experience for residents, as anticipation heightened with the announcement of results from each constituency throughout the day.
On Tuesday, election officials in India counted a staggering 640 million votes to announce the results of the country’s extensive seven-phase election. People watched election outcomes and analysis till late evening.
Mithun Perinchery who works in the Logistics and Supply chain field in Dubai did not go to his office yesterday. Instead, he had prepared for the day well in advance.
Speaking to Khaleej Times he said, “I had planned that I’ll be watching the election results at home without any distraction. It happens once in five years. I informed my manager and team at work that I would be taking the day off.”
Mithun even stayed up the previous night to finish some office work, preparing for the following day.
“On Tuesday morning I began tracking the election outcomes on various news portals around 9.30am to 10am. This event holds significant importance for NRIs because many funds are repatriated back to India, either in properties or fixed deposits,” he said.
“So, directly or indirectly we are affected. These were the results of India’s parliamentary elections — the largest in the world and the most populous democracy,” he added.
The expat who hails from Kerala followed not just the outcomes, but also the perspectives shared by economists and analysts later after the outcomes led to some big surprises.
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“The analysis later was also terrific trying to determine how this will affect policy decisions and will have global impacts. I barely took any breaks until I was exhausted. At one point my wife was asking me to switch off the device. It was a tight race but quite an eventful day.”
Notably, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, secured 240 seats in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament, which fell short of the 272-seat majority threshold out of the total 543 seats.
However, when combined with its allies, the BJP attained a majority by winning a total of 293 seats.
Stock market impacted
Nirav Modi, employed in the Trading and Jewellery industry, commutes daily to his office in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) in Dubai. However, he decided it was preferable to stay home rather than beat the traffic and potentially miss out on the excitement of the election results.
“I was watching the television all day. The polls were staggering in their size and logistical complexity. The results of certain constituencies were a real surprise. The election outcomes impact people in more ways than one can imagine. The BJP did end up dominating Gujarat as expected, but with much less votes,” Nirav said.
“I think India’s stocks suffered their worst intraday fall since March 2020 on Tuesday with foreign investors selling the most on record. I know there are many people here who invest in the Indian stock markets, particularly in the Gujarati community and even others. Therefore, it was a significant day from every perspective,” added Nirav who hails from the western city of Mumbai.
CA Dharmajan Patteri said he didn’t take the day off from work; instead, he worked from home. “I had a YouTube live stream running in the background and switched to low-noise channels to stay focused and minimize distractions.”
Tracking results even on business trips
Priyadarshee Panigrahi, a senior business management professional, who hails from the Eastern state of Odisha in India and is based in Dubai, was on a business trip to Qatar on results day.
Priyadarshee said, “I was in Doha and considering that it is 2.5 hours behind India, I made it a point to wake up early to start watching the results on various news channels and web portals. An early start was critical as I had to head to work and by the time I headed out, the trends were pretty clear. I reached Dubai later in the night and again caught up with all the analyses and views of various election experts.”
Priyadarshee is also the son of a former minister and parliamentarian from Odisha.
Recently, he also undertook a 20-hour journey to his hometown of Sambalpur to vote in the 2024 elections. His father had even represented Sambalpur in the state assembly in 1971 and 1974, he said.
Watching back home
Amita Jain was incidentally in Delhi (India) to drop her mother back who was visiting her earlier in Dubai. “I really enjoyed watching the election results here, the feel and the fervour were different. 2024 has given a valuable gift to the Indian democracy. I started watching the results from 10.30am IST onwards,” she said.
“This year I watched it more on the YouTube channels than the mainstream media because the quality of discussions on YouTube channels was more pragmatic and constructive,” she added.
She highlighted that it is the responsibility of a citizen to be invested in the democratic process. “
This should not be treated as a pastime where one watches only on the day of the election results. It is our responsibility as a citizen to be involved and be observant about these things. I was watching the discussions by experts till late evening on social media platforms and even on television,” added Jain who works for AskPankaj Tax Advisors.