NEW DELHI, May 16, 2009 (UPI) - The Congress Party and its allies appeared to have won a decisive victory in the Indian elections, officials said Saturday.
Congress seemed likely to have more than 200 seats in the Lok Sabha or parliament once all the votes are counted, The Hindu reported. With its allies in the United Progressive Alliance, the party would have more than half of the 543 parliamentary seats.
The victory makes Manmohan Singh the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to lead his party to victory after a five-year term, the newspaper said. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, appearing at a news conference with Singh, made it clear that he would remain in office.
"The people of India have spoken, and spoken with great clarity," Singh said, appearing at a news conference with Gandhi.
Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehru's grandson, said that Singh would decide whether to name her son, Rahul Gandhi, to the Cabinet.
Before the vote counting began, there were predictions of a close race between Congress and the Hindu nationalist BJP party. The outcome denied any chance to help form a government to the Third Front, a left-wing alliance including the Communists and some regional parties with Congress.
The Congress Party's allies, Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, also were successful in the national elections, PTI said.
UPA's rival, the National Democratic Alliance, had garnered 166 seats to date, thanks mainly to the Bharatiya Janata Party taking 50 seats and leading in 67 more.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley has admitted defeat in the Indian elections, following Third Front leaders in accepting the victory by the Congress Party and its alliance, the BBC reported.
"We accept this verdict," Jaitley said. "Something certainly did go wrong. ... Our performance was not up to expectation."
India’s Congress-led alliance won a commanding election victory with a projected 250 seats against 160 for the main opposition bloc headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Indian election victory for 2 Gandhis
Rahul and Varun Gandhi, cousins from India's most prominent political family and now on opposite sides, were both winners in Saturday's vote count.
Varun Gandhi, a member of the Hindu Nationalist BJP, hung on to his parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh, The Times of London reported. Gandhi, arrested during the campaign following the release of an anti-Muslim speech, had a convincing majority.
But Rahul Gandhi saw his party, Congress, win more than 200 seats, leading the United Progressive Alliance to a majority. He is now being tipped as a likely prime minister in two or three years like his father, Rajiv Gandhi, his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Sonia Gandhi, Rahul's mother and the Congress president, appeared at a news conference Saturday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She made it clear that Singh will lead the new government.
Political commentators immediately began speculating that Singh, 76, will step down in favor of Rahul Gandhi before he completes his second term.
Members of Congress carried banners with pictures of Rahul and his sister, Priyanka, as they celebrated the party's victory.
Shashi Tharoor creates history
Shashi Tharoor has created history by winning the Lok Sabha seat from the Kerala capital, Thiruvanathapuram, by an unprecedented margin.
Tharoor, a former UN undersecretary general, won the seat in his southern home state of Kerala by a margin of more than 95,000 votes, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The 53-year-old was India’s official candidate to succeed former UN secretary general Kofi Annan in 2006, but finished second behind eventual winner Ban Ki-Moon.
Tharoor had campaigned for the top UN position with a pledge to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers to conflict areas as part of institutional reforms, and to bridge a growing divide between developing and rich countries.
An award-winning author who has penned 11 books, Tharoor said if elected to parliament he would turn his home state into a centre of excellence in higher education.
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