Reuters is reporting that the Congress Party, in coalition with left parties such as the two large Communist Parties of India, has been returned to power. 380 million people voted yesterday in th eelection which threw the ultra-right BJP government out of power. It was a profound victory for India's working people.
Here is an excerpt from the Reuters report:
India's Gandhi dynasty swept back to power on Thursday on a stunning wave of anger among millions of rural poor, who felt left behind by the country's economic boom and voted out the Hindu nationalist government.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee conceded defeat and would resign later in the day, Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters after the opposition Congress party and its allies swept the polls in the world's largest democracy.
"We have decided to sit in the opposition," he said.
Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi and her children, Rahul and Priyanka, the new faces of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, could take power by next week.
"A... secular coalition led by Congress should take the oath in the next few days," party spokeswoman Ambika Soni said. However, a Congress coalition is likely to have to depend on the support of leftist parties, who registered their best performance yet[....]
Readers will recall the role the BJP played in fomenting ethnic and religious hatred and violence, especially its role in the Gujarat massacre in 2002. That same year BJP brought the country to the brink of nuclear war with Pakistan over its longstanding border dispute in Kashmir.
Here is a link to an article in which Nalini Taneja of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) describes their views of this election last March.
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