|
Vajpayee to resign as BJP loses in India
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-13 16:41 Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's
Bharatiya Janata Party has conceded defeat in parliamentary elections in a
stunning voting upset that should see the return of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to
power.
Vajpayee's
BJP concedes defeat. [AP] | Vajpayee -- who called
the election six months earlier -- is also expected to resign within hours,
India's defense minister said.
With counting still continuing, early results showed a stronger than
anticipated showing from the main Congress party headed by Italian born-Sonia
Gandhi.
Unofficial trends by major TV stations have Congress leading the BJP. But the
immediate result of the vote count is likely to be a hung parliament, with no
party gaining a clear majority of 272 seats in the 543-member lower house, or
Lok Sabha.
However Senior Congress party officials say they are confident they will be
able to form a government with the help of left leaning parties, CNN New Delhi
Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra reports.
"We have not got the mandate of the people, we have decided to sit in the
opposition," said BJP President Venkaiah Naidu.
Sonia Gandhi is now
likely to be India's next prime minister.
[AP] | The move has paved the way for Gandhi to be
sworn in as the next prime minister in the world's biggest democracy.
Gandhi is the widow of Rajiv who was was assassinated in 1991 by Sri Lanka's
Tamil Tiger rebels. Rajiv is the son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and
grandson of India's first premier Jawaharlal Nehru.
India's last female leader was Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated while in
power in 1984.
Gandhi, and her popular children Rahul and Priyanka, have revitalized the
Congress party, leading it to defy opinion polls that only weeks ago suggested
they had no hope of faring well in this election.
Vajpayee called the early election in a seemingly unassailable position --
boosted by a booming economy and also a strengthening peace process with
neighbor and arch-rival, Pakistan.
In contrast, the Congress party and its allies have been championing the
nation's poor, which the party says has been left out of India's new found
prosperity.
While Indians have traditionally voted on party, caste and religious lines,
this election has been fought on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs,
prosperity, water and electricity.
Financial markets were initially nervous with the benchmark index of the
Mumbai Stock Exchange, the Sensex, opening 3.3 percent lower. But the Sensex
bounced back as early results and trends pointed towards a Congress victory. It
is up about 1 percent to 5409.17 in afternoon trade.
India's massive election was staggered over several stages because more than
650 million people voted.
Elections are usually tinged with violence in the world's largest democracy,
and this year was no different -- despite more than 400,000 security forces
being deployed.
Election violence claimed 48 lives, less than half the number of deaths that
occurred in the 1999 election.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
