Lok Sabha elections 2009 : Manmohan Singh set to be PM again

lok sabha election, lok sabha election 2009 india, lok sabha election 2009 maharashtra

NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress-led coalition Saturday won a spectacular victory in the staggered Lok Sabha election, puncturing a disparate opposition, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set to govern the world’s largest democracy for five more years.

In a performance that dealt crippling blows to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies as well as the Communist-led Third Front, the Congress tally in the 545-member Lok Sabha rose sharply from the 145 seats it won in 2004 to an enviable 185 now.

The Congress-led multi-party United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was poised to win up to 254 seats in the Lok Sabha, leaving it just 18 seats short of the halfway mark needed to form a government.

Four hours after the millions of votes polled in the April-May election began to be counted, the BJP reluctantly conceded defeat while the Congress said the people’s mandate was for a stable government.

Congress spokesperson and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said: “This is a vote for (party president) Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh’s leadership. People have voted for a stable government, they want a prime minister who thinks for the country.”

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar summed up the UPA mood saying: “There will be a stable government now. And the country needs that stability. It is an excellent verdict.”