In the most decisive verdict in the last 30 years, the saffron surge swamped its rivals across the country as the Bharatiya Janata Party on its own crossed the half-way mark of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha to give India its first single-party government since 1984. With its allies the BJP reached 335 seats to give the National Democratic Alliance a comfortable cushion as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, its principal rival, suffered a severe mauling to be reduced to double digits. While the Congress failed to cross the 50-seat mark, the BJP was comfortably placed with 285 seats.
Led by the charismatic Narendra Modi the BJP powered along the path to power leaving its rivals licking their wounds and pride. The BJP put up is best ever performance since its inception and surpassed its performance under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in almost all the states blanking out the Congress completely is several regions.
Breaking all the caste and community barriers, the Modi juggernaut simply steamrolled through as West, North, Central, parts of East, Northeast and South India was turned saffron in colour. Constituency after constituency saw the candidates from the BJP and its allies trouncing his/her rival easily.
The massive win was made easier by a completely lacklustre Congress election campaign which came after its Central government had been completely discredited due to humungous corruption, policy paralysis, rising prices, economic slowdown, weak leadership exemplified by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and campaigner-in-chief Rahul Gandhi, who came across as a clueless charioteer.
The Modi tsunami was so powerful that rival parties failed to open their accounts in Rajasthan and Gujarat while it states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh the opposition was left to pick up the crumbs.
Regional satraps in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were blown away as the BJP along with its partners marched on without any resistance successfully negotiating the caste quagmire. Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Janata Dal United's Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad failed to stand up to the Modi power and meekly surrendered.
Buoyed by the huge mandate, Modi tweeted, "India has won! Bharat ki vijay. Good days are about to come." He is expected to take oath as the Prime Minister of India on May 21. The incumbent prime Minister Manmohan Singh will resign along with his Cabinet on May 17.
Except Arun Jaitley in Amritsar and Smriti Irani in Amethi, almost all the big BJP leaders won easily while a host of Congress stalwarts bit the dust. Rahul Gandhi managed to scrap through in Amethi but not before Smriti Irani had given him a tough fight.
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