Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi, May 16: After a victory which was as surprising as it was decisive, the Congress leadership reached out to both its old allies and to the opposition in a calibrated show of humbleness even as party workers across the nation burst into jubilation.
The Congress led UPA left its nearest rival, the NDA under BJP, behind by nearly 100 seats; a margin that the principle opposition party conceded was unbridgeable. BJP has resolved to sit in the opposition and work constructively with the government.
With the verdict, Congress has got 5 more years at the Centre, this time more unshackled that the term about to end because of the phenomenally good showing of the party. It has alone got more than 200 seats leaving behind even the most optimistic poll predictions. The increased numbers gives it enormous clout within the UPA and with any other partner who may join to make up the numbers.
At last count the UPA had got 253 seats and were headed to get nearly 260. The NDA meanwhile had got 156 and was slated to get more nearly 160. Third Front came a distant third with less than 100 seats. The Fourth Front suffered the most startling defeat with all of its constituents suffering significant erosion in seat numbers.
Manmohan’s next PM
Even as the politically underrated Manmohan Singh, equanimous in victory, spoke at the 10 Janpath residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, thousands of frenzied supporters shouted slogans, danced and exploded firecrackers on the streets.
"We have an obligation to the people of India to provide a stable and secular government," he added, underlining the two core themes that helped the Congress retain power in one of most fiercely fought electoral battles since independence 62 years ago.
He attributed the victory to the "visionary leadership" of party president Sonia Gandhi and to the hard work put in by Rahul Gandhi.
Gandhi, in turn praised Singh's leadership and lost no time in reaffirming that he would head the new government which is expected to be sworn in early next week.
The party president left the question of whether Rahul should be included in the Cabinet to Singh, who said that he would try to persuade the youth leader to join his team.
Saturday's thumping victory was widely credited to the unassuming Manmohan Singh, who only five years ago propelled to the top post after the Italy-born Gandhi refused the prime minister's job. With this, Manmohan Singh has achieved the distinction of becoming the first prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to be returned after completing a full term in office.
The Congress sweep surprised foes and friends. It shocked the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had hoped to return to power after a five-year gap, and also the Communist-led Third Front and groups that had ditched the Congress at the eleventh hour.
BJP concedes defeat
Humbled at the hustings, BJP accepted the people's verdict in the Lok Sabha polls with "due respect" and promised to play "constructive
opposition" even as it prepared to do soul-searching for the
"collective" failure.
At end of day, the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) finished with 163 seats -- far less than the Congress individual tally and also far below what they had won in 2004 and, as party general secretary Arun Jaitley said, "below our expectations".
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, who won Gandhinagar in Gujarat by over 120,000 votes, called Manmohan Singh to congratulate him and assured him of cooperation as a "constructive opposition" for "strengthening India".
There were reports that a humbled Advani was planning to quit politics and had offered to step down as Leader of Opposition.
"The UPA has come out as the biggest alliance, so the mandate is in their favour. The BJP accepts this mandate of the people with full respect," Jaitley said, while refusing to point out the exact reasons behind the party's poll debacle.
Senior leader L K Advani, who was projected as the NDA's
Prime Ministerial candidate, virtually took responsibility for
the defeat by insisting that he should not be the Leader of
Opposition in the next Lok Sabha but the offer was turned down
by the party which asked him to continue to "guide".
The analysis of the poll outcome began as soon as the
results showed that UPA had emerged as the largest coalition,
with BJP's highest policy-making body Parliamentary Board
meeting under the chairmanship of Advani.
At the meeting, Advani said he does not want to be Leader
of Opposition of the next Lok Sabha and some other person
should be chosen for the post, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said,
adding that the Parliamentary Board turned it down.
As Advani insisted, the meeting authorised BJP chief
Rajnath Singh to talk to the senior leader and persuade him to
take up the post again.
Third Front, Fourth Front routed
The Third Front, made up of the Communists and regional parties, was crushed, marginalising politicians who had till this morning nurtured fond hoped of dislodging the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
UPA's electoral sweep has made yesterday's much
sought-after parties such as Jayalalithaa's AIADMK, Mayawati's
BSP and Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi party almost
irrelevant to government formation at the Centre.
Lalu Prasad's RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, who
chose to snub the Congress before the polls by leaving just
three seats to it in Bihar, have been drubbed by the
electorate with the former reduced to four from 24.
Lalu was trounced in Pataliputra constituency but won from
the other seat--Saran--he contested. Paswan was defeated and
his party drew a blank in 12 constituencies it contested.
The Congress, India's oldest political party, pulled off a spectacular revival in Uttar Pradesh, estimated to get 22 of its 80 Lok Sabha seats, three more than the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Chief Minister Mayawati who found her national dreams dashed - at least for the moment.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) was slated to get 23 seats in a result that was seen to be influenced by the tireless efforts of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress also improved dramatically in Kerala, where the party-led UDF had just one seat in 2004, by winning 16 seats and virtually decimating the Left Democratic Front.
The four Left parties, which managed only 24 seats overall, a sharp fall from its 2004 tally of 60-plus, also got a drubbing in West Bengal where the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine got 25 of the 42 seats.
In a dramatic turnaround for the Left parties, which till 24 hours earlier were expected to play a key role in government, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat admitted Saturday that it had suffered "a major setback".
"The CPI-M and the Left parties have suffered a major setback in these elections," he said, reading out a prepared statement. "This necessitates a serious examination of the reasons for the party's poor performance."
The Communist Party of India (CPI), India's second oldest party, was expected to win just four seats -- its worst showing since the country's first general elections of 1952. CPI's D. Raja admitted: "We need to do some introspection."
Surprise victories
The DMK, a key Congress ally that was predicted to do badly because of its belated response to the Tamil humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, did well to come on top
in Tamil Nadu, which accounts for 39 valuable seats. DMK leaders said voters had not been swayed by emotions raised over the war against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which only in March divorced the BJP after 11 long years, swept Orissa. In Andhra Pradesh, actor Chiranjeevi's newly formed Praja Rajyam Party put up a strong showing, undercutting both the Congress and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party.
The Congress swept Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab in the north. It also had the upper hand in Maharashtra along with the NCP.
The BJP was on top in Karnataka and in Bihar with its ally the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).
Prominent winners, losers
Among the prominent candidates set to get elected to the 15th Lok Sabha were former UN under secretary General Shashi Tharoor, central ministers Kamal Nath and Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress, BJP president Rajnath Singh, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Janata Dal-Secular leader and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Sonia Gandhi, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K
Advani, Trinamool's Mamata Banerjee and DMK's M K Azhagiri,
son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, scored with big margins.
Some other prominent winners included Farooq Abdullah
from Srinagar, Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling, Sharad Yadav
from Madhepura, Kapil Sibal from Chandni Chowk, Kamal Nath
from Chindwara, Sachin Pilot from Ajmer, Milind Deora from
Mumbai South, H D Kbumaraswamy from Bangalore Rural, Jayaprada
from Rampur, Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram and A Raja
from Nilgiris.
Besides Ram Vilas Paswan, prominent losers included
pro-Tamil Eeelam leader Vaiko (Virudhunagar), Mani Shankar
Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai) George Fernandes (Muzaffarpur) and
Renuka Chowdhury (Khammam),S Bangarappa (Shimoga), A R Antulay
(Raigad), Margaret Alva (Uttara Kannada), Chetan Chouhan (East
Delhi), Mukhtar Ansari (Varanasi) and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
(Rampur).
With inputs from IANS