India's Modi gets hero's welcome

(Xinhua/Agencies) Updated: 2014-05-17 18:19

Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gestures towards his supporters from his car during a road show upon his arrival at the airport in New Delhi May 17, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW DELHI - Hundreds of Indians thronged the streets of New Delhi on Saturday to greet Narendra Modi's triumphant march into the capital after he won a sweeping victory in the general election.

Modi wins landslide victory in Indian election

Modi is due to attend a victory parade by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the capital to celebrate a historic winning of the government.

He will also discuss with other BJP leaders the forming of the government, which is expected to be a purely BJP cabinet which has itself alone won an absolute majority of 282 eats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, or lower house of Indian Parliament.

Modi leaned far out of his car, waving a victory sign to jubliant supporters, in a drive from the airport to the headquarters of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the center of town.

Modi toned down religious issues in his pitch to India's 815 million voters and won the world's biggest ever election with promises of economic development for all.

Describing himself as a "worker", he hailed grass-roots campaigners who showered him with pink rose petals as he arrived at party headquarters. There he met other party leaders and was expected to start discussions about forming a cabinet. Modi will not formally take office until after Tuesday, the party said.

Current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered his final address to the nation on Saturday, wishing the incoming government success. Later, he tendered his resignation.

"I am confident about the future of India," he said in his televised message. "I firmly believe that the emergence of India as a major powerhouse of the evolving global economy is an idea whose time has come."