The WSJ reports,"more than half a billion Indians, a record 66 percent of eligible voters, cast ballots at some 930,000 polling places. Results released Fridayshow the conservative Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its controversial leader, Narendra Modi, on course to win more than half the seats in parliament, the first time in 30 years a single Indian party has won enough seats to rule without coalition partners.
India’s 60-year-old democracy may be young compared with the United States–the world’s oldest–but there are parallels between this election and Barack Obama’s first presidential victory.
Both Mr. Modi and Mr. Obama hugely appealed to young voters and ran on a message of change, expanding economic opportunity and making government more responsive.
Indians desperately want economic growth and have grown frustrated with the corruption and incompetence of the ruling Congress Party. Some think tanks have rated this parliament the least productive in India’s history.
And so Indians turned to Mr. Modi, a charismatic campaigner with a compelling story. Born to the lower caste, he is a former chaiwalla (tea seller). In 12 years as chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, he developed a reputation for getting results and fostering economic development, job creation and improving infrastructure.
But Mr. Modi is feared by many Muslims for his alleged role in riots in 2002 in which more than 1,000 mostly Muslim people were killed in Gujarat. He has denied allegations that he did nothing to stop the violence but was denied a U.S. visa in 2005 over the issue".
