Narendra Modi led India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to unprecedented victory Friday in general elections, crushing the incumbent Indian National Congress and most other parties, dpa reported. Preliminary results showed the BJP obtained an absolute majority in the parliament, the first time a party other the Congress has done so since independence from Britain in 1947. Modi, the controversial pro-business chief minister of western state of Gujarat was the BJP's prime ministerial nominee. His promise in a high voltage campaign to put India on a path to high economic growth and weed out corruption, appealed to voters fed up with the Congress party-led alliance's inability to revive the economy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decade-old government had faced strong opposition and its image was tarnished by a slew of financial scandals. The BJP looked set to win a comprehensive majority of 282 seats as provisional results showed Friday, the first party to do so in 30 years. -- SPA 19:24 LOCAL TIME 16:24 GMT تغريد
