Indian_Elections-Results day in India

May 16, 2009

Leaders of India's main opposition BJP have

admitted defeat in the general election as counting trends show the

ruling Congress alliance well ahead.Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said: "We accept this verdict." The Third Front has also conceded the election. Official

results are now coming in. The main trends reported by state TV showed

Congress ahead in 262 seats, the BJP in 159 and the Third Front in 57. Congress should now find it easier to form a stable government. Rajnath

Singh, president of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, told

reporters it had not expected this kind of result. "We will sit

together later today, once all the results are out, and analyse what happened," he said. r Jaitley said: "Something certainly did go wrong... Our performance was not up to expectation." Prakash

Karat, the leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the key

mover in the Third Front, accepted Congress had won. "The CPM and the Left parties have suffered a major setback," he said. The

BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says that a small crowd gathered early

outside Congress headquarters to celebrate, banging drums and chanting

slogans. There have been celebrations in Mumbai and elsewhere. Our

correspondent says several days of backroom deals still lie ahead but

the prospect of a very weak and unstable government has receded. Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said it was clear there would be a new five-year tenure for the Congress alliance. There

were earlier reports that Home Minister P Chidambaram had lost his seat

in Tamil Nadu, but a recount has now been ordered there. 'Safe majority'Counting

began at 0800 local time (0230 GMT) and with electronic voting machines

being used the first trends were quickly available. State

television Doordarshan said that at 1445 local time across all 543

seats, the Congress alliance was ahead in 262, the BJP coalition in 159

and the Third Front in 57 with others at 65. The counting should be swift and the results known quickly

By 1515 local time only 38 results had been confirmed, 19 for Congress, 18 for the BJP and one for the DMK party. Congress

appears to be doing far better than had been expected, confounding

predictions particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and

Gujarat. Congress alliance spokesman Kapil Sibal told Reuters

news agency: "Together with our alliance partners, we will have a safe

majority." Left-wing parties appear to be suffering major

reverses in West Bengal and Kerala and the party of Dalit leader

Mayawati, also in the Third Front, has underperformed in Uttar Pradesh. enior leftist leader Sitaram Yechury said: "It's the people's verdict." One high-profile winner was former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor for Congress in Kerala's capital, Trivandrum. Since

polling ended on Wednesday, the two main parties have been involved in

a series of political meetings, scrambling to gain pledges of support

in a predicted hung parliament. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in

Delhi says there had been suggestions that both the Congress and BJP

were losing relevance in India, ceding political space to smaller,

local parties. But this defeat for the BJP's LK Advani should certainly spell the end of his political career, he says. The

main thrust of the Congress manifesto has been on economic recovery and

boosting growth, while the BJP focused on easing taxation and

recovering money illegally stashed abroad. President's roleSecurity was tight in a number of areas ahead of the results announcement. Meetings of five or more people have been banned across Rajasthan and victory processions barred in Uttar Pradesh. After the counting the focus will fall on President Pratibha Patil. There

are no rules in the constitution on who she can invite to form a

government. It could be the single largest party or most dominant

coalition. She may ask for documented pledges of support. Turnout for the election has been put at about 60%, compared with 58% in 2004. Security has so far generally been considered a success, although about 60 people lost their lives, mostly in Maoist violence. India's new 543-seat parliament, with a new government in place, is supposed to sit by 2 June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8051847.stm