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Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi pledged an "inclusive" future for all Indians after an overwhelming electoral victory that wiped out hopes for the return of the Gandhi dynasty.
"Together we grow Together we prosper Together we will build a strong and inclusive India – India wins it again!" Tweeted Modi as a delusional supporter of his party Bharatiya Janata (BJP) celebrated nationwide.
"The faith placed in our covenant is a source of humility and gives us the strength to work even harder to satisfy the aspirations of people," he said before reaching the BJP headquarters waving signs of victory with both hands and raining petals.
Although the final results have not yet been published, the electoral commission has recorded a steady number of votes showing that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has increased its majority with 302 of the 543 seats elected in the lower house.
The main congress of the BJP, the Congress, had only 51 seats. Rahul Gandhi – the great-grandson, grandson and son of three prime ministers – acknowledged his defeat and congratulated Modi.
In an additional personal humiliation, Gandhi, 48, also admitted to having lost Amethi, a seat long held by his famous family, to the benefit of a former TV star who stood for the BJP.
The BJP headquarters in Delhi erupted in celebration with drummers, firecrackers, dancers and singers as hundreds of worshipers crowded the courtyard and surrounding streets waiting for Modi.
"Modi will make India great again.Modi is the most powerful prime minister that India has ever had and will get.We must support his policy to prosper," said a supporter, Santosh Joshi.
At Congress headquarters, a handful of discouraged supporters sat in groups in the shade of trees.
"We are sad but we will rise again, Modi won because of his lies and his false promises.The country is now in danger," said Rajesh Tiwari, a supporter of the US Congress in AFP.
The main Indian index Senbad has crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time, indicating a victory for Modi, after strong gains since Monday.
False news
The vast size of India – from the Himalayas to the tropics to megacities, deserts and polluted jungles – has made the world's biggest election a six-week marathon.
The campaign, which cost more than $ 7 billion, was inundated with insults – Modi was compared to Hitler and a "gutter bug" – as well as false information on Facebook and the larger WhatsApp markets.
Gandhi attempted several avenues of attack against Modi, notably about a French defense agreement and a high unemployment rate, saying that Modi was dividing the country officially secular.
The lynchings of low caste Muslims and Dalits for eating beef, slaughtering and exchanging livestock have increased, with some critics claiming that extremists were encouraged by the BJP's coming to power.
Several cities with names rooted in Mughal's Islamic past of India have been renamed, while some textbooks have been modified to include references to the ideology, culture and history of the Hindu right.
The Guardian
But Modi, aged 68, managed to cleverly transform the election into a referendum on his reign, while presenting himself, often in the third person, as the only one capable of defending India.
On February 14, a suicide bombing, claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan, killed 40 Indian paratroopers in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Doubts abound about the effectiveness of India's subsequent airstrikes on Pakistan, but this action allowed Modi to call himself the "chowkidar" ("guardian").
"We showed the world that India was a great country and we showed Pakistan that they could not play with us," said Vishal Sharma, a BJP supporter in Delhi.
"Congress has sold the country for all these decades – the time has come to rebuild the nation."
(with AFP)
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