New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Narendra Modi will be the next prime minister of India, with counting trends on Friday showing his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed for the country’s most resounding election victory in 30 years.
Modi has promised to unblock stalled investments in power, road and rail projects to revive economic growth that has fallen to a decade low of below 5%.
Count of voting at 4.41pm:
-- BJP-led alliance ahead in 335 seats, BJP in 285 seats
-- Congress-led alliance leading in 59 seats, Congress in 46 seats
-- Seats needed for majority - 272
Reactions:
-- “India has won, good days are about to come,” Modi says in a tweet that is retweeted a record number of times in India. Celebrations begin at BJP offices across India.
-- Congress president Sonia Gandhi congratulates new government and takes responsibility for the defeat.
-- Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls Modi to congratulate him on his party’s victory.
-- BJP on course for strongest showing by an Indian political party since 1984. Congress party headed towards its worst seat tally in India’s election history.
-- British Prime Minister David Cameron calls Modi to congratulate him on election success.
-- “My blessings are there. The country will develop. My blessings are there,” says Modi’s 95-year-old mother.
-- “We accept defeat. We are ready to sit in the opposition,” senior Congress leader and spokesman Rajeev Shukla tells reporters at party headquarters in New Delhi.
-- Rajnath Singh, president of the BJP, congratulates Modi on the party’s “landslide” victory in a tweet.
-- Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken admits to errors in the campaign. “I think that we were not able to convey to the people the amount of work we have done ... that needed to be communicated more to the people,” he said.
Parliamentary seat tallies:
-- In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, BJP is on course to win all 26 parliamentary seats. Modi triumphs in both his Vadodara seat and in the holy city of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh.
-- Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi leads in his Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Congress party president Sonia Gandhi wins from her Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
-- Congress leader Arun Jaitley, widely seen as India’s next finance minister, loses in Amritsar, in Punjab.
-- Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj wins from her Madhya Pradesh constituency. Former BJP party president Nitin Gadkari wins in Nagpur in Maharashtra, where the party and its allies are leading in 44 of 48 seats.
-- BJP ahead in eight of 14 seats in Assam, where dozens of Muslims villagers were killed in a massacre earlier in the month.
-- BJP and its allies ahead in 71 of 80 seats in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, as regional parties and Congress look set for heavy losses. In the capital, New Delhi, the BJP is headed for a clean sweep, leading in all seven seats.
-- J. Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK party is leading in 38 of 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu. In West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress party is leading in 34 of 42 seats.
-- In Rajasthan, the Hindu nationalist BJP is leading in all 25 seats.
Market reaction:
-- The rupee strengthens to 11-month high against the US dollar. Indian shares pare morning gains on profit-booking and end around 1% higher after hitting record highs earlier.
-- The Sensex surged to as high as 25,375.63, before ending the day at 24,121.74, up 0.9%. The broader Nifty jumped as much as 6.2% to a record high of 7,563.50, before closing 1.12% higher at 7,203.
-- Puneet Bhatia, managing director and country head at TPG Capital says: “It’s a decisive mandate. And Modi will be coming in with a burden of a lot of expectations ... reviving the economy and bringing the growth rate back would be the major challenge.”
-- Ratings agency Fitch says the new government must focus on boosting growth, by spurring a pick-up in investments.
Notes:
Results for the 543 seats in Lok Sabha are being counted at 989 centres across the country. Reuters
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