» posted on 10:33pm - May 16 2009 | posted by xcom

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls it a 'massive mandate.' State television says the Congress alliance is likely to win about 261 seats in parliament, just short of the 272 needed for a majority.
By Mark Magnier and Pavitra Ramaswamy
11:22 AM PDT, May 16, 2009
Reporting from New Delhi -- India's election took five weeks, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and involved 700 million eligible voters from the snow-capped Himalayas to the beaches of south India. But the wait was worth it for the ruling Congress Party alliance, which today won a surprisingly strong showing at the polls.

In front of party headquarters in New Delhi, supporters set off fireworks and people danced in the streets, some carrying posters of party leader Sonia Gandhi, others singing "Jai Ho," from the "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack.

"I express my deep sense of gratitude to the people of the country for the massive mandate," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

Political analysts and exit pollsters were left a bit red-faced after predicting a tight race between Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

State television said the Congress alliance was expected to get somewhere around 261 seats - just short of the 272 needed for a parliamentary majority -- compared with 160 for the BJP alliance and 58 for a "Third Front" group made up of Communist and other smaller parties. But full results could take several days as Congress finalizes its coalition lineup.

Analysts said the results, coming on the heels of several years of economic growth, were a vote for policy continuity and a rejection of the BJP's divisive Hindu nationalist platform.

"This is good for Indian democracy and good for secularism," analyst Amulya Ganguli said.

The strong showing should also reduce pressure on the government to roll back economic reforms and weaken the Indian-U.S. nuclear agreement, a cornerstone of closer ties with Washington. That pressure had come from left-leaning parties, including India's traditionally strong Communist Party, which lost ground.

Under the deal, negotiated by the Bush administration and passed by the U.S. Congress last year, Washington agreed to share civilian nuclear technology.

Congress and its key allies held their own in traditional strongholds such as Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, analysts said.

And they managed to gain ground in traditional BJP and Third Front stronghold states, including Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal and even to some extent Orissa and Gujarat.

"It's good to see that Congress won," said Farooq Khan, 32, a betel-nut seller in New Delhi. "I didn't open the shop today because I was glued to the television watching the election results."

Prime Minister Singh, 76, who recently underwent heart bypass surgery, is expected to remain in place for at least a year or two before handing the reins over to heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi, 38, a member of India's most famous political dynasty.

"It will be good for a young country to have young leadership," said Ramesh Damani, a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Gandhi, who emerged as a key strategist during the election, is the son of slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.

Despite their common name, the family is not related to the pacifist icon Mohandas Gandhi, although they were closely allied.

The opposition BJP, which in the past used emotive scare tactics to energize its Hindu base, failed to get much traction this election.

Its efforts to paint the Congress party as weak on terrorism, and its personal attacks on Singh, a mild-mannered technocrat who oversaw India's 1991 economic reforms, didn't resonate with voters.

"From south to north there is a wave in favor of Congress," said Sanjay Kumar, a fellow at New Delhi's Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

The business community appeared to breathe a sigh of relief, with Indian stocks expected to rally Monday. The government's strengthened mandate under Singh was seen as a road map for more measured economic liberalization.

India has in recent years opened its markets, but generally chosen to do so while maintaining relatively strong government control. This balanced approach has been vindicated, some say, by the current global downturn, which was fueled by speculative bubbles and inadequate oversight.

"India could become a real engine of growth in Asia," Damani said. "This could become a real defining moment."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india17-2009may17,0,4883117.story

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