Bhutan Elections: What are the results? How are they going to impact India?

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Tshering Tobgay are celebrating the victory of the runoff elections in Bhutan on January 9. The results defeated Pema Chewang, a former bureaucrat, along with the Bhutan Tendrel Party.

A total of 30 seats in the national legislature have been obtained by the glorious victory of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) out of a total of 47 seats. The ballot was cast by a total of 3.2 lakh voters of Bhutan. It is important to note that only 3 lakh voters voted out of the total 5 lakh registered.

Tshering Tobgay is a former civil servant and a conservationist. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University in public administration. The liberal People's Democratic Party (PDP) was founded by the man in the year 2007. Tobgay earlier served as the prime minister from the term of 2013 to 2018.

Impact of the Bhutan Election Results on India

India is a country that serves as the most prominent ally and donor of Bhutan. It has helped Bhutan significantly with the economic recovery. Additionally, several infrastructure initiatives in the country have been funded by India. Additionally, India can potentially become a client of the hydroelectrical powers of Bhutan, which may be explored in the near future.

However, the recent years have seen some hostilities between India and China. For instance, Bhutan became the arena of the clashes between India and China in the year 2017.

Bhutan does not hold strong formal diplomatic ties with China. However, a joint cooperation agreement was signed with Beijing by the former prime minister of Bhutan, Lotay Tshering in the year 2023. The agreement put forward the duties of the joint technical team. The prime minister was thus considered one that was in favor of China, to the cost of the country.

However, the situation could be different with the newly elected prime minister of Bhutan, Tobgay. The prime minister is seen as pro-India. The newly elected prime minister of Bhutan was congratulated by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on platform X (formerly Twitter).