BJP declares ‘new era’ for India as Congress concedes defeat

NEW DELHI: India´s triumphant Hindu nationalists declared "the start of a new era" in the world´s second most-populous nation as the ruling Congress declared defeat in elections that laid bare anger about sickly economic growth and rampant corruption.

Preliminary results and media projections at the climax of the marathon six-week election showed the BJP on track for the first parliamentary majority by a single party in 30 years. The stunning results exceeded all forecasts, as firecrackers exploded at party offices around the country and sweets were handed out in celebrations that began only a few hours after the first figures filtered out.

"This is the beginning of change, a people´s revolution and the start of a new era," senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told at party headquarters in New Delhi.

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.

"We accept defeat. We are ready to sit in the opposition," senior Congress leader and spokesman Rajeev Shukla told reporters at party headquarters in New Delhi.

"Modi promised the moon and stars to the people. People bought that dream," he added.

Media projections showed the BJP winning more than the 272 seats required for a majority on its own, with victories by its allies taking it easily in excess of 300.Stock markets, which have risen 5.0 percent in the past week, surged again. The benchmark Sensex index jumped more than six percent on Friday to a record high.

Investors and the wider public have rediscovered heady -- many say unrealistic -- optimism about the world´s largest democracy after years of frustration about low economic growth, rising food prices and corruption.

The disastrous showing for Congress is another blow to the scion of the Gandhi dynasty, 43-year-old Rahul, whose first performance as chief campaigner will likely lead to dissent.

The country´s most illustrious political family has provided three prime ministers but preliminary results showed Rahul with only a wafer-thin lead in his constituency of Amethi.

A group of Congress supporters shouted slogans in support of Rahul´s more popular sister Priyanka outside party headquarters on Friday.

"The politics of inheritance, the politics of dynasty, the politics of entitlement is being punished," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told the CNN-IBN news channel.