New Delhi: A few hours after Mauritius’s premier conceded defeat in the general elections and before all seats were fully counted, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with opposition leader and apparent victor Navin Ramgoolam on Monday (November 11), congratulating him on his “historic election victory”.
“I wished him great success in leading Mauritius and extended an invitation to visit India. Look forward to working closely together to strengthen our special and unique partnership,” Modi said on X, describing his call with “friend” Ramgoolam as a “warm conversation”.
Earlier in the day, incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said his coalition, the Alliance Lepep, was “heading towards a huge defeat”.
“I have tried to do what I can for the country and the population. The population has decided to choose another team. I wish good luck to the country,” Reuters quoted Jugnauth as saying to reporters.
Voting took place in the island nation on Sunday – with over a million people eligible to exercise their franchise – and counting on Monday.
According to the Le Mauricien newspaper, the Ramgoolam-led Alliance du Changement was set to win 60 of the 62 seats to which elections were held on Sunday. A live results page on the paper’s website projected no seats for Lepep as of 12:20 am Indian time on Tuesday.
Ramgoolam, who has twice before served as prime minister, reposted Modi’s congratulatory message on his official X account, which is his first post since July.
India has maintained strong ties with Mauritius ever since the island nation’s independence, largely due to its significant Indian-origin population that traces its roots to indentured labourers brought during colonial times.
The Mauritius wing of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin International noted the fact that Modi congratulated Ramgoolam even before the final official result was out, calling it a testament to the closeness of bilateral ties.
Also read: Election Outcome in Mauritius Doesn’t Trouble India Amid Broader Regional Shifts
Another sign of the closeness is the fact that the Mauritius government’s national security adviser has been a retired Indian security official nominated by New Delhi. Mauritius was also India’s largest source of foreign direct investment until 2017-18.
Polls were held on Sunday to 62 of Mauritius’s 70 parliamentary seats – the rest are allocated by the election commission using the ‘best loser’ system, which is meant to ensure fair ethnic representation.
Lepep consists of Jugnauth’s ruling Militant Socialist Movement as well as the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate, while the Changement alliance comprises Ramgoolam’s Parti Travailliste and Paul Bérenger’s Mouvement Militant Mauricien.
The campaign of the ruling bloc took a hit after a YouTube channel called ‘Missie Moustass’ began releasing a series of allegedly private phone conversations involving prominent political figures in the country starting mid-October.
The Wire reported yesterday that the opposition in Mauritius was in a strong position, with the government facing anti-incumbency headwinds.
Unlike recent elections in Indian Ocean nations like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which introduced new political players and a learning curve in handling bilateral relations, New Delhi remained sanguine about the change in Mauritius, with no expectations of a shift in Port Louis’s policies toward India.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar had met with opposition Mauritian politicians, including Ramgoolam, in July, and officials pointed out that India had chartered a plane during the pandemic to fly a critically ill Ramgoolam to Delhi’s AIIMS for treatment for COVID-19.
Ramgoolam reportedly brought this up in a conversation with Jaishankar, observing that India “saved” his life.
