The US on Tuesday praised India's parliamentary elections as the "largest exercise of democracy in history", but refrained from commenting on the results of the polls.
US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller commended the Indian government and its voters for the successful completion of the massive electoral process.
Miller emphasised the US stance on not commenting on electoral winners and losers worldwide and said they look forward to seeing the final results.
Miller made the comments while responding to a question on the Lok Sabha elections in India, when results for some seats were not yet out on Tuesday.
"The election results have not been finalised. So we will wait for the finalisation of those election results before we offer any definitive comment. I'm also not going to comment on winners and losers in elections, as in our case around the world, what is important for us and what we have seen over the past six weeks is the largest exercise of democracy in history as the Indian people came to the polls. On behalf of the United States, we want to commend the Government of India and the voters there for successfully completing and participating in such a massive electoral undertaking. We look forward to seeing the final results," Matthew Miller said.
Miller also denied reports of external influence in Indian elections by Western powers, including the US.
"We will always express our views clearly and openly. We express them with foreign governments privately and, when we have things that we are concerned about, we also express them publicly, including from this podium. That's what I've done. But that, in no way, is an attempt to influence an election in India or anywhere else," Miller said.
He said he expects the close partnership between the US and India to continue.
"There is a great partnership, both at the government level and at the people-to-people level, and I fully expect that to continue," Miller said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to return for a third term at the Centre, though his BJP-led NDA coalition fell short of expectations in the face of a surprisingly strong showing by the Opposition INDIA bloc.
The BJP won 240 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress 99.
