Indian elections: Live Report

AFP

Updated 16 May 2014 at 1:34 am

New Delhi (AFP) - 05:22 GMT - The scene from Gujarat - There's a similarly carnival atmosphere in Modi's home state of Gujarat where AFP's Annie Banerji is currently reporting from. At the BJP's regional headquarters, a local official used a microphone to tell the crowds that Modi was to be India's next prime minister, prompting cheers and chants of "Modi ji ki jai!" (Hail Modi!) and "NaMo", a popular nickname for Gujarat's chief minister.

Amid the bursts of firecrackers, men and women danced with hands in the air as trumpets and drums blared.

"I will tell my kids about this historic day one day! Looks at this, I'm so lucky to be a Gujarati," said 27-year-old Tejas Patel, sporting a white t-shirt with Modi's face on it.

BJP worker Sushilbhai, who only gave one name, said he started celebrations last night. "We saw this day coming. My brothers and sisters dancing together, chanting Modi's name. The whole country is chanting his name. I feel so proud."

05:13 GMT - Summary - Here is a summary of events so far today:

-- Counting has begun in the Indian election

-- Early trends suggest BJP will trounce Congress

-- Shouts outside Congress HQ for Priyanka Gandhi to take over from Rahul

-- Carnival atmosphere among BJP supporters with dancing in the streets

05:12 GMT - Elephants refused entry - More colour from AFP's Bhuvan Bagga outside the BJP's HQ. The road itself is cordoned off with heavy barricading. Two elephants who were brought down to take part in celebrations have not been allowed to pass through. Police say they will stop allowing people after a certain point to ensure that there is no issues with the massive crowds that are expected.

A huge TV screen is streaming live results to the crowds. Around 200 BJP supporters have been lighting firecrackers, dancing to dhol drums and applying holi colours to each other. One group of dancers have dressed up in pretend tiger skins.

M.J Akbar, a BJP spokesperson, said: "Good days are coming as Narendra Modi is bringing hope for India's young. He based his entire campaign on good governance and development."

04:53 GMT - Long live Priyanka - AFP's Abhaya Srivastava, who is currently with Congress supporters at their HQ, says there are shouts for Priyanka Gandhi, the sister of campaign leader Rahul, demanding that she take charge of Congress immediately. Rahul has been accused of leading a lacklustre campaign and being a reluctant politician.

Some supporters were carrying placards reading "Priyanka Gandhi is the need of Congress"

G M Khan, a Congress supporter, told AFP: "We want Priyanka to take part in active politics. Party workers love her. She is just like (her grandmother) Indira Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi should change his attitude. His way of talking is not good. He is politically inexperienced. He should revamp himself".

04:37 GMT - Tea and dancing - More colourful scenes from the BJP's Delhi HQ. AFP's Bhuvan Bagga has posted the following showing orange capped party volunteers handing out cups of tea to supporters while others dance in the street accompanied by beating drums (https://vine.co/v/MXdmdLPhil9)

04:32 GMT - Voter fatigue - Congress have clearly recognised many of their natural constituents turned away from them in this election. National spokeswoman Priyanka Chaturvedi, dressed in a bright orange and pink saree, told reporters at Congress headquarters in Delhi just now: "There's been fatigue factor among the voters. We failed to communicate our achievements to the people effectively."

She added: "We will accept whatever results come. We will respect the mandate of the public. Once final results are out, we will sit down and discuss our next strategy."

04:24 GMT - Trends - AFP's Rebecca Conway (@rebeccajconway) has just tweeted that two hours into this count India's NDTV says there's "no doubt" Modi will be next prime minister with 282/543 seats. Our correspondent Pamposh Raina (@PamposhR) adds that the BJP is currently leading in 171 seats, while Congress is leading in 39. Those figures are based on early trends released by for 318 of 543 seats

There's still a long way to go until we get the full figures, but these early indications will be music to Modi's ears.

04:13 GMT - Aam Aadmi Party - A newcomer and relative unknown quantity in this election is the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party. Born out of an anti-corruption movement in 2011, it hopes to win at least 100 seats on a pledge of cleaning up politics. But there are signs that their early momentum might have peaked.

Led by Arvind Kejriwal, a former taxman turned anti-corruption champion party, AAP briefly governed Delhi after making a stunning debut against Congress and the BJP at the capital's elections last year.

He resigned after just 49 days in power after the BJP and Congress thwarted attempts to set up an anti-corruption commission in a move seen as clearing his path for the upcoming general election.

AFP's Pamposh Raina (@PamposhR), says on Twitter that early leads suggest the AAP has eaten much more into Congress than into BJP -- quoting Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi speaking to NDTV

04:05 GMT - Congress 'bleak', stock market happy - In contrast to the celebrations outside the BJP's HQ, despondency is already setting in among Congress.

Party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi says early results look "very bleak at the moment," adding that early leads showed "a very negative picture".

If the stock market could vote, it would clearly be a BJP supporter. The market has jumped more than four percent to a record high, buoyed by the likely Modi win. The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange index, known as the Sensex, rose 4.40 percent, or 1,051.00 points, to 24,956.60.

04:03 GMT - Firecrackers and sweets - AFP photographer Roberto Schmidt says there are already celebrations going on outside the BJP's headquarters in Delhi. A handful of supporters are dancing to music, burning crackers and waving BJP flags.

Confidence is clearly running high. BJP workers said they brought in two car-loads of fireworks, while confectioner Hari Gyan Singh told AFP he had prepared around 25,000 kilograms (55,115 pounds) of laddoos, a traditional ball-shaped sweet for the celebrations.

03:53 GMT - Coalitions key to power - India has been ruled by coalitions since 1989. Whoever wins will likely spend the next few days hammering out deals to form the next government.

Key BJP allies include the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu nationalist party based in Maharashtra state which has a history of inciting violence against migrants and opposing the spread of Islam and "decadent" Western influences.

Other allies are northern Punjab state's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of southern Andhra Pradesh state, which joined the NDA on April 6.

There are also a number of Indian parties that the BJP may call upon as coalition partners.

The biggest of these is the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in southern Tamil Nadu state which is headed by former actress Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a populist known as "mother" to her supporters.

Another possibility would be to lure self-styled low-caste icon Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from northern Uttar Pradesh, although she has spoken out against Modi and the danger of him stoking religious tensions.

Congress, which has dominated Indian politics since independence from Britain in 1947, has had two terms in power at the head of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition. These include Maharashtra-based National Congress Party (NCP), the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Uttar Pradesh state and the National Conference (NC) of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

03:39 GMT - Our reporters on Twitter - AFP correspondent Ammu Kannampilly (@akannampilly) has just tweeted the following: "Looks like the #BJP may win its first seat in #Kerela, one of #India's traditionally left states."

We have reporters across India bringing you live coverage throughout the day both on our wire and on Twitter. Annie Banerji (@anniebanerji) is in Gujarat, Modi's home state; Rachel O'Brien (@robr1) is in Nagpur; Bhuvan Bagga (@bhuvanbagga), Pamposh Raina (@PamposhR) and Adam Plowright (@adamplow) are with Ammu in Delhi; Aditya Phatak (@owlbywindow) is in Mumbai and Parvaiz Bukhari (@parvaizbukhari) is in Kashmir.

03:20 GMT - Gandhi: The reluctant 'princeling' - The Congress party, which has been in power since 2004, and its campaign leader Rahul Gandhi is likely staring at its worst ever result.

Gandhi's mother, father, grandmother and great-grandfather all led the party to thumping general election victories.

Rahul, whose Italian-born mother Sonia remains party president, was chosen to lead the Congress campaign despite asserting last year that the "power so many people seek is a poison".

His appetite for power has long been questioned and he rejected several offers to enter government under Singh.

He has been at his most impassioned defending the secular tradition personified by his great-grandfather Jawaharal Nehru, India's first prime minister whose socialist model framed the post-independence economy.

Gandhi has called the election "a clash between these two ideas of India", hammering Modi over communal riots that killed more than 1,000 people -- mostly Muslims -- in Gujarat in 2002.

03:06 GMT - Modi: from tea seller to Hindu nationalist - The 63-year-old son of a low-caste tea seller from western Gujarat state, Modi is seen as a hardliner within the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was last in power between 1998 and 2004.

While he has mostly campaigned on a platform of good governance and economic revival, his links to anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people died, remain his biggest handicap.

He was chief minister when riots broke out and, although he has never been found guilty of wrongdoing, the failure of his administration to control the violence left a legacy of distrust and suspicion.

Critics note a lack of progress on human development indicators during Modi's rule, saying his cosy relationship with industrialists amounts to crony capitalism, and also scoff at his governance record.

Bur on the campaign trial, in speeches often laden with sarcasm and barbs for the ruling Gandhi political dynasty, Modi has promised to clean up the corruption-wracked federal government.

A talented orator and master of communication -- he has appeared as a hologram at simultaneous political rallies -- he speaks in often coarse Hindi, shunning the English language of the Delhi elite.

02:56 GMT - Record turnout - Holding a general election in India is a Herculean task and while many voters may feel exasperated by their politicians, they have nonetheless embraced democracy wholeheartedly.

Shortly after polls closed three days ago the Election Commission gave final figures saying 551 million had voted -- 130 million more than in 2009 -- with turnout also at a record high of 66.38 percent.

02:33 GMT - Half a billion have spoken - WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE REPORT on India's election results. After six weeks of polling and more than half a billion votes, counting has begun in the world's largest democracy as Indians discover who their new leader will be.

The clear front runner according to the exit polls is for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi to crush the current Congress government. The key question is how much will they win by?

"The other thing that people find appealing about him is his own story. This is a person who was born in a very poor family, who started life selling tea in a railway station and this would be a dramatic story in any democracy in the world but it's particularly dramatic in a society that's as stratified as India's."

He adds: "I don?t think that any leader can possibly fulfill the kind of sky-high expectations that Modi has raised, that goes without saying. But the more interesting question is, can he fulfill some of the expectations? Can he essentially put India?s economy back on the rails? Can he create jobs? Can he rebuild infrastructure? And I am reasonably optimistic that he will be able to fulfill some of the expectations."

05:45 GMT - Congress defeated, BJP set to win majority - India's ruling Congress party has conceded defeat in what now looks set to be a landslide victory for the BJP. Media projections have Modi's party winning its first majority since 1984. That means the BJP may be able to form a government without resorting to a coalition.

"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."

Meanwhile two television channels have projected that the BJP will secure the first parliamentary majority by a single party in 30 years, based on preliminary results.

NDTV and CNN-IBN forecast the BJP would win 272 out of 543 seats in the parliament on its own, with the right-wing BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition set to score between 316 and 328 seats.

Whatever the final count, one thing is clear. Indian voters have comprehensively rejected Congress after a decade of rule that too many Indians felt was ineffectual and mired in corruption.

05:44 GMT - Scene from Mumbai - Nice quote from a Mumbai chai wallah summing up the national mood in India. Lalji, 45, a tea seller from the arid state of Rajasthan who plies his trade in Mumbai's business district: "We gave Congress chance to rule for so long. It was time to change and so this time, BJP. We know 5 years are not going to be enough to complete all works. But if they can do something, it will be good."

05:33 GMT - Dancing Modi - In their ever evolving quest to capture viewers, India's news networks love attention grabbing graphics scrolling across their screens. Aaj Tak, India's most widely watched Hindi TV news channel, is currently using little cartoon graphics of Modi and Gandhi to display the latest results. The cartoon Modi regularly jumps up and down with joy and breaks into dance, whilst the Gandhi cartoon looks despondent.

05:22 GMT - The scene from Gujarat - There's a similarly carnival atmosphere in Modi's home state of Gujarat where AFP's Annie Banerji is currently reporting from. At the BJP's regional headquarters, a local official used a microphone to tell the crowds that Modi was to be India's next prime minister, prompting cheers and chants of "Modi ji ki jai!" (Hail Modi!) and "NaMo", a popular nickname for Gujarat's chief minister.