By Emily Wax
NEW DELHI, May 16 -- The ruling Congress party won a dramatic victory today in month-long elections, as a majority of voters endorsed a second term for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former economist who has championed programs for the poor and pushed for rural development and economic reforms.
Congress -- known as the Grand Old Party of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty -- crushed the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), despite a slowing economy, last November's three-day siege of Mumbai and a controversial nuclear deal with Washington that nearly brought down the ruling coalition last year.
The results of marathon five-phase polls in this nation of 1.2 billion people defied analyst's predictions that regional and smaller parties would outdo the two main parties. The poorest showing was for the once powerful communist party along with others that had rejected the U.S. civilian nuclear deal and others that had been slow to embrace economic reforms that have helped India's international status soar. Analysts took to the airwaves, joking that they were worse than the country's beloved astrologers at making predictions.
We have given this country a strong, stable government at a time when the world is danger. Today, we stand as one nation, Singh told reporters.
At his party's headquarters in New Delhi, celebrations quickly got underway. Smoke from firecrackers formed puffy clouds, supporters danced in the streets to drums and ate ice pops in the shape of a hand -- the party's symbol -- while shouting: Singh is King in the 110 degree heat.
By early evening, Singh's incumbent Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was predicted to win 254 seats in the 543-seat Parliament, and the BJP-led alliance could take 156, according to news channels. The BJP is led by L.K. Advani, 81, nicknamed the Iron Man for his tough stance on security.
We accept this verdict of the people, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said at the party's sober headquarters in the capital, where a trickle of supporters napped in the mid-day sun. When you lose an election, it gives rise to a debate within the party.
The Congress alliance is predicted to fall 20 to 30 seats short of the 272 seats required for a majority. But Congress was expected to easily draw those alliances from regional parties.
A key U.S. ally, India faces security concerns over rising instability in South Asia and is surrounded by unstable countries, including , where the Taliban's reach is spreading; Nepal, where a Maoist-led government has collapsed; and Sri Lanka, where a civil war is intensifying. Tensions between India and Pakistan rose dramatically after the attack in Mumbai last year.
Using what experts called the terror card, the BJP touted itself as a strong leader, with decisive government. Campaign ads showed Advani, a white-haired octogenarian, pumping iron at the gym. His party also launched India's largest ever Internet and text messaging campaign.
But the Congress party appears to have benefited from five successive years of near-double digit growth, a slate of loan waivers for farmers, cheap rice and work programs that targeted India's vast rural areas, where a majority of Indians live and most villagers say they care more about schools than security.
It's jai ho for the country. It's jai ho for the poor. It's jai ho for Manmohan Singh, said Digvijay Singh, Congress general secretary, using a slogan that the party purchased the rights to from the Oscar-winning song from the film Slumdog Millionaire. Jai ho is Hindi for Let there be victory.
Congress made sweeping gains, most notably in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, where Mayawati, the Dalit chief minister had in the past trounced Congress by building a party based on the country's lowest untouchable caste and high-caste Brahmins. Some pundits had predicted she could become the next prime minister if the two main parties did not get enough votes.
But many Dalits said they have been angered by allegations of corruption and her fondness for spending money on her own birthday parties and on statues of herself.
It's simple: Mayawati didn't put in the work she was supposed to. She was spending money on erecting numerous statues, and inaugurate them by proxy while sitting in an office. It is unacceptable, said V.K. Bajaj, owner of Today's Chanakya, a poll analysis agency. She also promised to decrease crime rates and then began recruiting criminals. Voters . . . felt she's more into her own development than anyone else's. At that rate, sooner or later she had to be turned out.
The efforts of the BJP and other regional parties also appeared to wilt in comparison to the star power of Congress's young heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi, who insisted on fielding younger candidates. The dimple-faced Gandhi crisscrossed the country, giving the party fresh momentum and drawing camera-phone clicking crowds on university campuses, in peasant farming villages and at rural factories. Drawing heavily on emotional symbolism, Gandhi sipped tea with lower castes, an act once considered taboo. He campaigned heavily to regain the party's traditional base among the poor, Muslims and high-caste Brahmins.
I want everyone to be like Rahul Gandhi, said Farzana Malik 26, who was dressed in white, a symbol of the party and stood near a rose and marigold map in the shape of India at the boisterous headquarters. I'm a female Muslim. I think Congress will protect us. The BJP thrives on anger.
The BJP also put off some voters during campaigning for anti-Muslim rhetoric and was seen as communally divisive, in this nation with a history of religious violence, including recent attacks on Christians in the eastern state of Orissa.
The saffron party with its lotus symbol may have suffered many analysts said because they projected controversial Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a future prime minister. Modi has attempted to refashion himself as a pro-business leader but has also been accused of turning a blind eye or even having a hand in the 2002 riots that left 1,000 Muslims dead and thousands of shops and homes burned.
At the BJP's campaign book shop, workers said they had sold only a few flags and buttons and no books.
I'm really feeling disappointed, said shopkeeper Miank Sherma, 32. But ultimately India has not lost. Democracy has won.
