India's Narendra Modi won a landslide victory

India&#039;s Narendra Modi won a landslide victory

(Image credit: CC by: Narendra Modi)

last updated 8 January 2015

India's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its leader, Narendra Modi, have won what appears to be a landslide victory in the country's six-week-long national elections. According to preliminary results early Friday, the Hindu nationalist BJP has won at least 272 seats in the lower house of Parliament; that would be an outright majority and enough to form a government outright, a feat no party has pulled off since 1984.

The long-dominant Congress Party conceded defeat. "We are accepting the people's verdict in all humility," party spokesman Shakil Ahmed told The Associated Press. Turnout was a record 66.4 percent of India's 814 million voters. Modi, who was governor of Gujarat state during bloody 2002 riots that killed more than 1,000 Muslims, campaigned on fostering economic growth and better governance.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.