INDIA’S triumphant Hindu nationalists declared “the start of a new era” in the world’s biggest democracy yesterday as the ruling Congress conceded defeat in elections that exposed anger about sickly economic growth and rampant corruption.
Preliminary results and media projections at the climax of the marathon six-week election showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its hardline leader Narendra Modi on track for the first parliamentary majority by a single party in 30 years.
Modi, the 63-year-old son of a low-caste tea seller tainted by anti-Muslim violence in his home state of Gujarat in 2002, wrote on Twitter that “India has won.
“Good days are coming”.
The stunning results exceeded all forecasts.
“This is the beginning of change, a people’s revolution and the start of a new era,” senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said at party headquarters in New Delhi.
Media projections showed the BJP winning more than the 272 seats required for a majority on its own in the 543-seat parliament, with victories by its allies taking it easily in excess of 300.
The Congress party, the national secular force that has run India for all but 13 years since independence, was set to crash to its worst ever result after a decade in power.
The disastrous showing for Congress is another blow to the scion of the Gandhi dynasty, 43-year-old Rahul.
“Modi promised the moon and stars to the people. People bought that dream, senior Congress leader and spokesman Rajeev Shukla said.
After a presidential-style campaign built around him and his record during 13 years running Gujarat, expectations are sky-high of what Modi will deliver in a chaotic and still poor country, home to a sixth of humanity. — AFP
Indians dump corrupt Congress
Preliminary results and media projections at the climax of the marathon six-week election showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its hardline leader Narendra Modi on track for the first parliamentary majority by a single party in 30 years.
Modi, the 63-year-old son of a low-caste tea seller tainted by anti-Muslim violence in his home state of Gujarat in 2002, wrote on Twitter that “India has won.
“Good days are coming”.
The stunning results exceeded all forecasts.
“This is the beginning of change, a people’s revolution and the start of a new era,” senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said at party headquarters in New Delhi.
Media projections showed the BJP winning more than the 272 seats required for a majority on its own in the 543-seat parliament, with victories by its allies taking it easily in excess of 300.
The Congress party, the national secular force that has run India for all but 13 years since independence, was set to crash to its worst ever result after a decade in power.
The disastrous showing for Congress is another blow to the scion of the Gandhi dynasty, 43-year-old Rahul.
“Modi promised the moon and stars to the people. People bought that dream, senior Congress leader and spokesman Rajeev Shukla said.
After a presidential-style campaign built around him and his record during 13 years running Gujarat, expectations are sky-high of what Modi will deliver in a chaotic and still poor country, home to a sixth of humanity. — AFP
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