Modi on course for resounding win

Early counting of results in India’s general election put opposition leader Narendra Modi on course for a resounding victory that would hand him a clear mandate for his agenda to revive growth and create jobs. Returns showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies leading in 249 parliamentary seats. The ruling Congress party alliance was ahead in just 67, according to NDTV news. Modi was ahead in both of the constituencies he contested – in Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat and in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. Rahul Gandhi, who led the Congress campaign, was lagging in his seat of Amethi, which has been held in turn by his uncle, father and mother, Sonia, since 1980. A loss there would spell disaster for the great grandson of India’s independence leader and cast the future of the dynasty into serious doubt. If early trends are confirmed the BJP and its allies would win an absolute majority of more than 272 seats in the Lok Sabha, bearing out the findings of exit polls that have proved inaccurate in the past. “This is undoubtedly going to be a BJP government,” said Prannoy Roy, the head of NDTV news channel and a political analyst. Such an outcome would open the way for Modi, 63, to become prime minister and act quickly to form the core of a new government by naming loyalists to the prized cabinet posts of finance, home, defence and external affairs.