Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Congress wins Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The forecast is based on the first tally of electronically counted votes give the United Progressive Alliance (Upa), a coalition group led by Sonia Gandhi e Manmonah Singh, 250 seats. The National Democratic Alliance (Nda), allied to the Hindu party has won 160 while the Third Front is at circa 80.
Rajnath Singh, president of the BJP, has already conceded defeat: “The Bharatiya Janata Party 's performance in the results is very unexpected. The success for the National Democratic Alliance that we had hoped for has not materialised. The reasons for this will be discussed later” declared the leader of the nationalist Hindu party already at 11 am this morning local time.
In an interview with AsiaNews, Msgr. Stanislaus Fernandes, secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, says that “this is certainly a welcome result for the secular nature of the country”. The bishop believes that the election result indicates that the people of India “want a stable government” and has voted “against fundamentalism and communism”.
Theodore Mascarenhas, Vatican Official of the Pontifical Council for Culture Asia Desk, comments that “the result is an answer of the people of India to the politics of hate in Orissa against the Christians in Karnataka”. For Fr. Mascarenhas “this verdict once again reflects the intelligence of the Indian people who chose inclusiveness against divisiveness”.
In the lead up to the final results expected later today, early analysis of voting has begun. The minimum requirement of 272 seats for a ruling majority in the Lok Sabha seems impossible for any of the parties and it is already clear that the future government will be a coalition. The BJP has already called a meeting of party leaders for this afternoon to analyze their defeat. Congress, who at the outset of the election had already declared its willingness to work with any party except the BJP, is now speaking of openness towards all of the nation’s secular parties.