Indian Election Gives Congress Party "Massive Mandate"

The big national election in India gave more power to the powers already in power. Surprising most observers, the Congress Party swept the polls in a huge victory. 

It marks a huge loss for India's leftists, especially the Communist Party of India and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who had come to see the election as a referendum on the Left's ideological stance as opposed to that of the Congress, acknowledged that the results were a "major setback" for them. He agreed that the people all over the country had voted "on the basis of the platform put forward" by the Congress and its allies. Full Story at EconomicTimes.indiatimes.com...

The Economic Times also reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi says that Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister. Singh would be the first person since Jawaharlal Nehru to "return to power after a full five-year term." The ruling Congress party swept to a resounding victory Saturday in India's mammoth national elections, defying expectations as it brushed aside the Hindu nationalist opposition and a legion of ambitious smaller parties. The strong showing by the party, which is dominated by the powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, laid to rest fears of an unstable, shaky coalition heading the South Asian giant at a time when many of it neighbors are plagued by instability, civil war and rising extremism. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared victory, telling reporters that voters had given the Congress party-led coalition a "massive mandate." Full Report from AP/Yahoo! News...

"We have won a thumping majority," Congress activist Parag Jain said outside the party offices, in a leafy, elegant south New Delhi neighborhood. "Successful rule begins and ends with Congress and the Gandhi family."

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