WE WERE RIGHT: NDA Wins in Massive Victory

SAFRON WAVE ENVELOPES INDIA

CONGRESS TO CONCEDE DEFEAT AT 11 AM

RAHUL GANDHI POISED TO LOSE OWN SEAT AS ANTI-INCUMBENCY FEELING REACHES PEAK

Former INC spokesman and Rajasthan MP Abhishek Singhvi has given an interview to CNN IBN saying the Congress will likely concede defeat at 11 am Delhi time.
He describes the count so far as indicative of a “complete rout”.
I still anticipate changes in the east and the south and in the north east. But I agree with you that this is overall picture, there doesn’t seem to be any part of India [that has swung to the INC] except Kerala to an extent where there is an exception
Singhvi then states the INC will be a “constructive opposition”.
The full video is viewable here.
Updated 1m ago
18m ago
The BJP appear to be leading in all Delhi seats as well.

25m ago
CNN IBN call election victory for BJP
CNN IBN have called the election already. At 9:30 am Delhi time, just an hour and a half after counting began the news network declares, “We have decided Nahrendra Modi will be India’s next prime minister”. The network declares that the BJP is ahead in all constituencies in Gujarat – Modi’s home state – and say they are clearly ahead in Uttar Pradesh.
Here’s the video:
Updated 24m ago
38m ago
As Jason Burke observes the count, which places the BJP well on course for victory, has already buoyed the markets.
41m ago
Counting has begun in 368 of the 543 constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India. The BJP are ahead in 199 of those, with the INC ahead in just 40.
47m ago
It seems Rahul Gandhi has pulled back in Amethi.
49m ago
Comments are now on. Apologies to readers, the blog was launched accidentally with them turned off. Please post your thoughts below the line and we’ll try and publish some of your comments in due course.
You can also still contribute to our Guadian witness assignment. We’re asking our readers in India to tell us what you want from a new government. We’ve had some incredible submissions so far.
We’ve also put together this excellent interactive guide to the election,which can be viewed here.
All our extensive coverage of the election and the run up, can be viewed here.
1h 14m ago
Gandhi behind in his own constituency
Counting has only been going for an hour and a half but Reuters report that the count has already indicated a “resounding victory” for Narendra Modi and the BJP. They also report that Rahul Gandhi is behind in his own constituency of Amethi.
Early returns showed Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies leading in 208 parliamentary seats. The ruling Congress party alliance was ahead in just 70, according to NDTV news.

Modi was ahead in both of the constituencies he contested – in Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat and in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

Rahul Gandhi, who led the Congress campaign, was lagging in the constituency where he stood for election. A loss there would spell disaster for the great grandson of India’s independence leader and cast the political future of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty into serious doubt.

If early trends are confirmed the BJP and its allies would win an absolute majority of more than 272 seats in the lower house of parliament, bearing out the findings of exit polls.

Updated 1h 9m ago
1h 30m ago
Our South Asia correspondent Jason Burke has been speaking to the editor of India’s Caravan magazine, a monthly politics and culture journal, Hartosh Bal Singh. Jason sends this quick update:
Singh said he expected results to be broadly in line with the exit polls, although he thought the polls had probably overestimated the scale of the BJP and allies’ victory.
The BJP currently leading in 75 out of 197 constituencies for which there are counts coming through.
Updated 1h 29m ago
1h 48m ago
The Election Commission of India is constantly updating the count on its website. It currently has the BJP leading in 16 out of 34 seats and the INC ahead in nine. At present the count shows a 39% BJP share of the vote, with the INC on 33%. These counts are, of course, constantly evolving.
1h 53m ago
Incidentally, Jason’s analysis piece from the Observer on Sunday on what the west can learn from the rise of Narendra Modi is a must read.
I’ve pulled out a couple of choice paragraphs but the whole article can be read here.
A victory for Modi, or at least one for his Bharatiya Janata party, will add 1.25 billion people to the already sizable proportion of Asia, by far the world’s most populous continent, ruled by conservative leaders, often populist and often, though far from always, committed to a powerful fusion of religion and patriotism which has mobilised huge numbers of people. Many are also authoritarian. This dominance has gone largely unnoticed.
The article continues:
Our interaction with countries like India is complex. But our policymakers and official representatives are guilty of extraordinarily narrow vision which has helped open up space for people like Modi across much of a continent. This aids the sense among huge numbers of people that globalisation is a conversation from which, metaphorically and practically, they are excluded. That conversation takes place in English and it is worth noting that Modi will be the first leader of such prominence and power in India who, like the vast majority of his compatriots, is uncomfortable in what has become the world’s language.
1h 60m ago
My colleague Jason Burke has just sent this quick update, which underlines the vast scale of the operation.
He says that postal votes are due to be counted first. Then the votes frommore than a million and a half electronic counting machines, from 930,000 individual polling booths. He says that a million or so people are involved in the vote counting, plus another million security staff.The major trends should clear by noon, Delhi time.
2h 5m ago
The Public Information Bureau of India has tweeted some interesting statistics on the gender breakdown of the 8,251 candidates that stood this year:
2h 19m ago
My colleague Phoebe Greenwood has recorded this useful video explainer asking a key question: just who is Narendra Modi?
2h 26m ago
The Indian election is the world’s largest exercise in democracy. 537 million votes have been cast over a five week election cycle. Results, announced on Friday, are expected to confirm a huge swing victory for the Hindu nationalist group the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
We’ll bring you live updates as they come. Here are a few key points.
• Exit polling has predicted a crushing victory for Modi and the BJP and a rout for the Congress party.
• Insiders have predicted this election could mark the end of India’s most noted political dynasty, the Gandhi-Nehru families, who have dominated political life in the country since independence.
• Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the incumbent Congress party has been widely criticised as a “as distant and inexperienced” leader.
• According to Reuters, foreign investors have poured more than $16 billion into Indian stocks and bonds in the past six months, banking on a Modi victory. Modi has promised to revive economic growth in India, which has fallen to a decade low of below five per cent. Modi has promised to create 10 million jobs and reinvigorate investment in power, road and rail projects.
• The BJP and their allied parties require 272 seats to win a parliamentary majority.
• Voter turnout was 130 million more than in the previous election of 2009. It was also a record high percentage turnout of 66.38% of the population.