Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi declares 'India has won'
Scale of victory not seen since 1980s
BJP secures outright majority
Congress party concedes defeat
Who is Narendra Modi and how did he rise to power?
Indian election results - in pictures
8.55pm AEST
The Gandhi dynasty has been snubbed by voters like never before, according to AP.
In a campaign led by Rahul Gandhi the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers the Indian National Congress party suffered the most crushing defeat in its 128-year history Friday as the results of India's general election were released.
The BJP seized on the perception that Rahul Gandhi was little more than a crown prince awaiting his prize.
8.35pm AEST
Video from Anu Anand captures the party mood outside the BJP's headquarters in Delhi.
8.25pm AEST
Nielsen India has put together a useful Google Map of the results.
8.21pm AEST
There have been mixed results for India's female regional leaders.
In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa Jayaram party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), is reported to be leading in 37 of 39 seats.
Modi and Amit Shah make UP tick for BJP. Mayawati's BSP wiped out. #leads #Results2014 pic.twitter.com/uXMNcoglRE
7.54pm AEST
The UK's foreign secretary, William Hague, has passed on his best wishes to Modi and spoken of Britain's "strong ties" with India - a diplomatic euphemism if ever there was one.
I congratulate Narendra Modi and the BJP on their success and look forward to forging an even closer partnership with India in the months ahead.
With 815 million eligible voters, 915,000 polling stations, and nine days of voting over five weeks, India has seen the largest parliamentary election in the world.
PM: Congratulations @narendramodi on victory in India's elections. Keen to work together to get the most from UK-India relationship
7.46pm AEST
Modi successfully made the clean up of the Ganges river a metaphor for his campaign, according to Shreeya Sinha for the New York Times.
Cleaning up the Ganges, a river on which 450 million people depend, is a cherished goal that spans religious divisions.
Theres some sort of symbolic confession to Hindu nationalism, but cleaning the Ganga is a project that Muslims would embrace, too, except that they wouldnt vote for him for his record, said Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at Brown University.
7.34pm AEST
Corporate India and Hindu majoritarianism have won, according to economist Jayati Ghosh an adviser to the outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh.
In a post for Comment is free, she argues that Modi's lucratively marketing campaign played a worryingly significant part in his victory:
We do not have data on the amount of money that was spent on the Narendra Modi campaign, and unfortunately there is no limit on the spending by political parties as opposed to individual candidates. But estimates are in excess of Rs 5,000 crore (about £500m. This was possible because some large corporate entities threw their full weight behind Modi, seeing in him a strong leader who would deliver all the benefits and incentives they have got used to. And their investment in him seems to have paid off for now, as the clear majority achieved by his party alone, not to mention the strong showing by National Democratic Alliance allies, seems to have given Modi a free hand to do whatever he wants at a national level.
This huge mandate does provide so-called political stability, but it is at the same time a concern for Indian democracy for several reasons. The underlying association with the rightwing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which pulls many of the strings in the BJP, has always been an issue, but now the personality cult around an authoritarian leader may be an even bigger problem.
7.15pm AEST
Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa has become one of the first world leaders to offer congratulations to Narendra Modi.
President Rajapaksa called @narendramodi a short while ago; Congratulated on BJP victory & invited for a state visit to #SriLanka. #India
7.05pm AEST
This Guardian graphic underlines the scale of the BJP's win.
7.03pm AEST
"The mood is utterly jubilant" at the BJP's headquarters in Delhi Anu Anand reports above the sound of fire crackers.
The party has hired two elephants, painted with lotus symbols, to celebrate the victory, she reports. "They haven't spared any cost or symbolism to project just how well they have won," she said in a phone update.
6.40pm AEST
India's early stock market rally has run out of steam as analysts question whether BJP can deliver on its pledges, writes Graeme Wearden.
The SENSEX index surged 6% to a new record high this morning as Narenda Modi swept to victory, breaking through the 25,000 point mark for the first time ever.
But the SENSEX has now shed all its gains , as investors ponder the scale of the challenge facing the pro-business BJP party.
Growth in India has slowed in recent quarters, while inflation remains a key worry. Economists say the next government must do a better job of stimulating the domestic economy, to push up consumption.
Marc Ostwald of City firm Monument Securities warned that BJP faces a "mammoth" task, and can't afford to dawdle.
Very exciting day for #India. Lets hope honeymoon period not short lived. After economic weakness of recent years time to be more positive!
The rupee also rallied, hitting an eleven-month high against the US dollar. According to Reuters, India's central bank has been buying US dollars to prevent the rupee strengthening too much.
6.19pm AEST
Jason Burke reports from the BJP headquarters in Ashoka road, Delhi.
There is a large, excited and almost exclusively male crowd of workers and officials. Senior leaders are hoarse with interviews and very very pleased. They are talking of "new hope" in a "new era". I've just had long talk with Ravi Shankar Prasad, the BJP deputy leader, who is tipped as a possible foreign minister.
Ravi Shankar prasad, BJP dep ldr, tells me off again about guardian coverage. V grumpy about Rushdie/Kapoor letter. http://t.co/OVqOVLdPIw
6.15pm AEST
Sonia Paul reports on the recriminations and finger-pointing at a gloomy Congress party office in Lucknow.
Only activity at #Congress office in #Lucknow is in the media room. Longtime supporters hashing out what went wrong. pic.twitter.com/ygAZImUPAA
#Congress supporters at the party HQ now discussing role of the #media during the elections. Lots of finger-wagging going on (literally).
6.07pm AEST
Modi says he has sought the blessings of his 90-year-old mother.
Sought blessings from my Mother pic.twitter.com/OegXhartLx
6.01pm AEST
Outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh has congratulated Modi on his victory.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh calls Shri Narendra Modi and congratulated him on his party's victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
5.58pm AEST
The newly formed Aam Admi (Common man) party has congratulated Modi. As expected, the AAP which ran on an anti-corruption ticket, only secured a handful of seats nationally.
NDTV quoted AAP leader Yogendra Yadav as saying: "I congratulate Modi as people have shown their faith in him."
The AAP leaders in Varanasi, Arvind Kejriwal and Amethi, Kumar Vishwas were defeated.
5.40pm AEST
The scale of the victory is beyond BJP's wildest expectations, according to the BBC's Delhi correspondent, Soutik Biswas.
The scale of victory is truly gigantic in India's fractured polity where no party has managed to get a simple majority since Congress in 1984 won 415 seats riding on a sympathy wave after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
The results are a thumping endorsement for the BJP's charismatic and controversial prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who made the election a presidential-style referendum on his reputation as a no-nonsense, can-do leader who stood for development and muscular nationalism ...
5.35pm AEST
The BJP appear to be on course for a landslide victory, according to the latest count by NDTV.
#IndiaDecides2014: Leads + Results (543/543) - BJP+ 339 (+198) , Congress 59 (-175), Others 145 (-23) #Results2014 pic.twitter.com/01yHTlZtA5
5.30pm AEST
A graph from Reuters India illustrates how well the markets have reacted to the BJP's win:
TRACKING MARKETS: Indiabulls Real Estate jumps 18 pct, Unitech up 11 pct, DLF rises 9.3 pct http://t.co/sJALnIadwJ pic.twitter.com/ZqLD5VFZdL
5.15pm AEST
The BJP has declared victory and the Congress party has conceded defeat, according AFP.
"This is the beginning of change, a people's revolution and the start of a new era," senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said.
The Congress party, the national secular force that has run India for all but 13 years since independence, was set to crash to its worst ever result after a decade in power.
5.07pm AEST
BJP supporters are celebrating, Anu Anand reports from Delhi.
Sarita Jain, 60, a retired teacher, said the results would make India stronger.
Pausing for a drink of water in the morning heat outside a bustling metro station in Old Delhi, she said: Only Modi can run the country.
Raman Kumar, an 18-year-old student, is using his morning commute for some last minute cramming before an exam. He's studying to be a teacher and the news that the BJP is winning in early results from India's election, brings a smile to his face.
"If Narendra Modi runs India, we'll progress economicaly, and he'll take a strong stand against terrorist attacks," said Kumar as he waited for a train.
But Rajul Garg, who runs an online education service for Indias vast, young, aspirational population, has mixed feelings about the results.
I can see why Modis pro-business persona is attractive to everyone its attractive to me as well, said Garg from his home in a leafy Delhi neighbourhood.
4.52pm AEST
In his first tweet since the results were announced, Modi declares a victory for India.
India has won!
4.50pm AEST
With the BJP on course to secure the biggest win in Indian election since 1984, Jason Burke has more analysis on how Modi pulled it off:
The scale of this victory is not just a vindication of Modi's strategy and the party he leads but a sign of profound changes in India over the last decade. The rejection of the Congress Party is in part because of the failings of the outgoing government - the scams, the apparent inability or unwillingness to communicate, the soaring prices of basics like onions, the faltering growth - but more broadly because they failed to understand that that expectations of elected representatives are different today. Indians are now wealthier, more aware, more urbanised than ever before. Modi, the self-made outsider with the can-do attitude as well as a superb PR machine, understood these much better. Despite the fears of sectarian prejudice and polarisation, or indeed perhaps sometimes because of both, hundreds of millions voted for him. I am from amongst you. I understand you. I know your hopes and dreams and disappointments, I heard him tell a crowd in a small country town in Gujarat at a rally in 2012. It looks like that claim may have been justified.
4.44pm AEST
The BJP now has passed the crucial 272 seat mark, which means it can form a government, the BBC's Geeta Pandey reports.
BJP now leading in 272 - the crucial half-way mark has been reached #Results2014
4.37pm AEST
Congress may not have officially thrown in the towel, but a spokesman has come pretty close to conceding.
He told AP that nation voted "against us." Shakil Ahmed said:
We are accepting the people's verdict in all humility. Trends of the counting are certainly not in our favour. The trends point out that the country has decided to vote against us.
4.10pm AEST
Our South Asia correspondent Jason Burke is at the Indian National Congress headquarters in Delhi. He says that reports of an official concession are inaccurate, although no one there is denying defeat.
Jason spoke to a ex-INC minister Rajeev Shukla who said: the election result was "very disappointing."
We will accept verdict of the people. This is a collective failure of the party not one person. We will introspect and bounce back.
Funereal atmosphere at congress headquarters. 'Collective failure. Party will introspect and bounce back' says Rajeev Shukla, ex-minister.
3.43pm AEST
The novelist and essayist Pankaj Mishra has written a fascinating essay for the Guardian on how Modi has swept to power. Click here to read it.
Here is an extract:
Modi, however, has opportunely timed his attempt to occupy the commanding heights of the Indian state vacated by the Congress. The structural problems of India's globalised economy have dramatically slowed its growth since 2011, terminating the euphoria over the Global Indian Takeover. Corruption scandals involving the sale of billions of dollars' worth of national resources such as mines, forests, land, water and telecom spectrums have revealed that crony capitalism and rent-seeking were the real engines of India's economy. The beneficiaries of the phenomenon identified by Arundhati Roy as "gush-up" have soared into a transnational oligarchy, putting the bulk of their investments abroad and snapping up, together with Chinese and Russian plutocrats, real estate in London, New York and Singapore. Meanwhile, those made to wait unconscionably long for "trickle-down" people with dramatically raised but mostly unfulfillable aspirations have become vulnerable to demagogues promising national regeneration. It is this tiger of unfocused fury, spawned by global capitalism in the "underdeveloped" world, that Modi has sought to ride from Gujarat to New Delhi.
3.32pm AEST
The Singaporean newspaper the Straits Times is reporting that the INC have conceded defeat. I've yet to see this confirmed.
#BREAKING #IndiaPolls - Congress concedes defeat
3.19pm AEST
Our South Asia correspondent, Jason Burke, has written some analysis on what this scale of victory means in context. He writes that no political group has seen this level of power in India since the 1980s:
Few doubted a BJP victory but almost no one anticipated it to be quite so emphatic. The party is now looking at 300-plus seats and a mandate not seen by any political organisation in India since 1984. This is huge and it means an incredible amount of power concentrated in the hands of Modi, who remains deeply controversial. The BJP and their existing allies have no need of any further support. The results for potential partners in major states like west Bengal and Tamil Nadu simply don't matter.
This looks like a crushing victory.
3.10pm AEST
NDTV in India report that the BJP victory will be so comprehensive they will have enough seats to command a parliamentary majority without needing any alliances.
#IndiaDecides2014: BJP will be 272 on its own, predicts @PrannoyRoyNDTV. All India Leads - 539/543 pic.twitter.com/NTQGS2Skti
3.03pm AEST
Former INC spokesman and Rajasthan MP Abhishek Singhvi has given an interview to CNN IBN saying the Congress will likely concede defeat at 11am 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
2.50pm AEST
The BJP appear to be leading in all Delhi seats as well.
#IndiaDecides2014: In Delhi BJP is leading in all 7 seats pic.twitter.com/LBed5zCBoO
2.43pm AEST
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:
2.30pm AEST
As Jason Burke observes the count, which places the BJP well on course for victory, has already buoyed the markets.
five percent gain already on Indian stock markets #IndianElections2014
2.26pm AEST
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.
2.20pm AEST
It seems Rahul Gandhi has pulled back in Amethi.
Rahul Gandhi leading in #Amethi by 1800 votes #YourVote2014
2.19pm AEST
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1.54pm AEST
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.
1.37pm AEST
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.
1.20pm AEST
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.
1.15pm AEST
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.
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.
1.08pm AEST
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 from more 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.
1.03pm AEST
The Public Information Bureau of India has tweeted some interesting statistics on the gender breakdown of the 8,251 candidates that stood this year:
#IndiaElects Of 8251 candidates in the fray, 7578 are male, 668 are females and five are others
12.48pm AEST
My colleague Phoebe Greenwood has recorded this useful video explainer asking a key question: just who is Narendra Modi?
12.42pm AEST
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.
Continue reading...