India's Congress party was in talks Sunday to finalize a coalition government, a day after its resounding victory in month long national elections. Congress officials were meeting with leaders of smaller parties, officials said, to nudge its coalition over the halfway mark in Parliament. The Congress-led coalition won 260 seats in India's 543-seat Parliament, requiring just 12 more spots. The Congress, which on its own took 201 seats in Parliament, won one of the most crushing electoral victories by an individual party in nearly two decades, Associated Press reported. Party officials said Sunday that it was likely Congress would prefer to ally itself with numerous small parties and independents _ a move that would spare them from giving too many concessions or Cabinet posts to a larger party. «We are very close to the magic figure of 272,» Rajiv Shukla, a party leader told the NDTV news channel. «So we won't require large parties.» No final decisions would be taken, however, until Congress leadership meets in the next few days, he said. On Saturday, when votes were finally counted from an election that began in mid-April and stretched across five phases, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared victory saying voters had given his party a «massive mandate.»
