In his first speech after winning a historic landslide victory to take power in the world’s largest democracy, controversial Indian Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi has pledged to work for all 1.25 billion of his fellow Indians.
“Brothers, sisters, you have faith in me and I have faith in you,” Modi, 63, told an ecstatic crowd in the town of Vadodara, from where he stood for election in the five-week poll. “The people of this country have given their verdict. This verdict says we have to make the dreams of 1.25 billion people come true. I must work hard.”
With most of the 550 million votes counted, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared to have vastly exceeded all predictions and with existing allies, was set to win as many as 350 of the 543 elected seats of India’s lower house.
Illustration: Yusha
The National Congress of India party, which has been in power since 2004 and for all but 18 of the past 67 years, appeared to be heading for its lowest-ever tally, with 44 seats.
Experts say the political landscape of India has been transformed. The vote is the most decisive mandate for any Indian leader since the 1984 assassination of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi propelled her son, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, to office.
World leaders rushed to telephone India’s new leader-elect, with the head of the country with which India has fought four wars, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, inviting him to visit.
Modi, who has been dogged by accusations of sectarian prejudice, appeared to make an effort to reassure those who fear he will prove a divisive leader.
“To run the country we need to take everyone with us, all together, and I seek your blessings to succeed in this endeavor,” he said.
The former tea seller who started his political career with a far right Hindu revivalist organization and has been chief minister of Gujarat State since 2001, promised “good times ahead.”
In a second speech hours later, Modi invoked Mahatma Gandhi and stressed that “the only solution to every problem is [economic] development — without which India’s destiny will not change.”
Though a BJP win was expected, few predicted such a crushing victory. For 25 years, India has been governed by coalitions, but the size of Modi’s mandate means he will not have to work with allies and can set his own agenda. The BJP’s strength among India’s states means he can push through new measures despite a relative weakness in the upper house of parliament. The party’s regional strength is likely to be reinforced at local elections in coming months.
Supporters, who thronged the BJP headquarters in Delhi on Friday to sing, explode firecrackers, bang drums and chant support for Modi, said he would bring honest government, efficient administration and much-needed economic reforms to the troubled nation.
“I am elated. It’s time for change,” 28-year-old student Gautam Sood said.
The elections saw about 100 million first-time voters cast a ballot.
Modi’s “Development For All” message appeared to have struck a chord with frustrated voters, particularly the young. It also countered accusations of sectarian prejudice, allowing BJP campaigners to argue that they believe in genuine equality because the party wants no communities to receive special treatment.
At Congress’ headquarters, the mood was very different.
“It is very disappointing for us all, but we accept the verdict of the people. Congress has bounced back before and we are confident that we will bounce back again,” senior party official Rajeev Shukla said.
The outgoing government was hit by allegations of corruption, its failure to rein in runaway inflation and faltering growth. India needs to create 10 million jobs each year for new jobseekers alone, an area in which Congress officials admit they have had “difficulty.”
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old scion of South Asia’s most famous political dynasty, retained his own seat of Amethi, but by a hugely reduced margin. The Cambridge University-educated former management consultant has struggled to connect with voters and failed to develop any significant momentum throughout the campaign, but Congress officials nonetheless rallied around the Gandhi family.
“This is not about one particular leader or individual,” party official Salman Soz said.
Yet at a chaotic press conference late on Friday afternoon, Rahul Gandhi admitted that Congress had done “pretty badly” and accepted responsibility for the party’s worst-ever defeat.
Congress president Sonia Gandh called on the new government to avoid divisive policies and said her party would focus on grassroots work. The 67-year-old won again in the constituency of Rae Bareli, an exception in a rout of dozens of senior Congress figures.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the election had revealed a “tectonic shift. The politics of dynasty, entitlement and inheritance has been rejected in favor of the politics of initiative and accomplishment based on hard work,” he said.
Since being named as his party’s candidate in September last year, Modi has flown more than 298,000km and addressed 457 rallies in a slick, presidential-style campaign that has broken the mold of Indian politics. A huge social media effort has reached out to voters across the nation and Modi received more than seven times the media coverage of his chief rival, one study showed.
Modi has promised that a BJP government would take decisive action to unblock stalled investments in power, road and rail projects to revive faltering growth. Indian stock markets soared early on Friday, as results began to be clear.
However, as much as development, relations between India’s 150 million Muslims and the Hindu majority was a key theme as candidates traded accusations of seeking to win votes by targeting particular communities or raising sectarian tensions.
Modi has been accused of allowing, or even encouraging, riots in 2002 in Gujarat that killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. The violence followed an arson attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims that killed 59. An Indian Supreme Court investigation found insufficient evidence to support the charges against Modi, who has always denied any wrongdoing.
BJP officials defended his record on Friday.
“Gujarat has the highest economic growth rate for Muslims in the country,” Prasad said. “The myths have been broken — Mr Modi will govern for all Indians.”
In the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, which is particularly prone to sectarian violence, the BJP appeared set to win 70 or more of the 80 seats being contested, with a 40 percent share of the votes. The newly formed Aam Admi — common man — Party, which has promised to revolutionize Indian politics and purge corruption from public life did not make the breakthrough some had hoped for, winning only four seats.
Former journalist Ashutosh, who uses only one name, stood for the Aam Admi in Delhi, but lost. He said the result was a “disappointment,” but that an increase in the party’s vote share in the capital from 29 percent to 33 percent was “a silver lining.”
“We need to work on our organization, we need to build a solid base, we need an effective communication system and to fine tune our ideological moorings,” he added.
Aam Admi leader Arvind Kejriwal lost in a three-way fight with Modi, who stood from two constituencies, as permitted under India’s electoral laws and a Congress candidate. Kejriwal, a former tax inspector turned anti-graft activist, came second.
Influential female regional leaders had mixed results. Chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa Jayaram’s party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, was reported to be leading in 37 out of 39 seats and Chief Minister of West Bengal State Mamata Banerjee had done well, but Mayawati Kumar, a key power broker in Uttar Pradesh, was wiped out.
One key question will be the influence on the new government of the vast conservative Hindu revivalist organization where Modi started his career as an activist. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sena (RSS) — National Volunteer Union — has been heavily involved in the campaign and Modi and many other senior officials of the BJP, which is independent of the union though ideologically close, are still members of the organization.
“The BJP is a cadre-based party and we are the cadre. Ideology and cadre is what makes BJP win,” Union spokesman Rajeev Tuli told the Guardian at the organization’s Delhi headquarters.
Analysts say the RSS, which has been banned by Indian authorities three times, and other hardline groups will now push hard for the fulfilment of core long-term demands such as the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a demolished mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.
Aides described how Modi had watched the results come in alone in the chief minister’s residence in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
“He took no calls, just made a few around the country to key people. That’s his way of doing things, very calm, very focused,” one said.
However, Modi’s visit to his 95-year-old mother had been arranged in advance. He touched her feet in a traditional gesture of respect as she put a red stripe of vermilion on his forehead as a blessing, while crackers burst outside amid supporters’ chants of: “Modi, Modi.”
Additional reporting by Agence-France presse
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