NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party was set on Tuesday to win the largest number of seats in a big southern state election, giving him momentum for a re-election bid next year and opening a path for more reforms.

A government in Karnataka led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will help Modi silence critics who said his popularity had waned after the rocky adoption of a nationwide sales tax and a ban on high-value bank notes late in 2016.

The BJP was leading in 105 seats in Karnataka’s 225-member state assembly, the Election Commission of India said, with the opposition Congress party leading in 75.

A party must have 113 seats to form a government and the BJP will probably have to seek the backing of smaller parties.

The Congress said it was ready to support a regional party that was coming third to form a government to stop the Hindu nationalist BJP from taking power. But analysts said the state governor would likely ask the BJP to make a bid for power because it would emerge as the biggest party in the new house. “The result provides some reassurance to the BJP that its popularity remains intact,” said Shilan Shah, a senior India economist at Capital Economics.—Reuters