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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