Indian opposition grabs landslide win as Modi weaves ballot magic
Print Edition
OPPOSITION leader Narendra Modi will be India’s next prime minister, winning the most decisive election victory the country has seen in more than a quarter century and sweeping the long-dominant Congress party from power, partial results showed yesterday.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was winning in 279 seats in the lower house of Parliament, beyond the 272-seat majority needed to create a government without forming a coalition with smaller parties, the Election Commission said.
The outcome was a crushing defeat for the Congress, which is deeply entwined with the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty that has been at the center of Indian politics for most of the country’s post-independence history.
“India has won!” Modi tweeted with a note of triumph after a slick and well-financed campaign that promised a revival of economic growth and took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with the scandal-plagued Congress party.
At BJP headquarters in New Delhi, party workers handed out sweets, set off firecrackers and danced in the streets.
In Gujarat state, where Modi has been chief minister for more than a decade, jubilant supporters and a frenzied media surrounded Modi as he visited his mother and touched her feet, a traditional gesture when Hindus seek the blessings of an older relative. His mother then marked his forehead with vermilion and fed him sweets.
The last time any single party won a majority in India was in 1984, when an emotional nation gave the Congress a staggering victory of more than 400 seats following the killing of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The overwhelming victory gives Modi, a 63-year-old career politician, a strong mandate to govern India at a time of deep social and economic change.
For the young Indian voters, the priorities are jobs and development, which Modi put at the forefront of his campaign.
Congress, in power for all but 10 years of the country’s history since independence from Britain in 1947, has been plagued by corruption scandals. Yesterday’s results showed Congress leading in only 42 seats, its worst showing ever.
The leader of the Congress campaign, Rahul Gandhi, failed to inspire public confidence. He was seen as ambivalent at best over winning a job held previously by his father, grandmother and great-grandfather.
“I wish the new government all the best,” Gandhi, 43, said yesterday afternoon, adding that he held himself responsible for the party's losses.
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