(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thanked the people of India for giving him a “historic mandate” of five more years in office, after a landslide victory in the general election.
“We all want a new India. I want to bow down my head and say thank you,” he said in a victory address to supporters of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP is projected to get about 300 of the 543 seats in parliament.
It is likely to take a larger share of the vote than in the 2014 elections.
The main opposition alliance, which is headed by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party, has admitted defeat.
The general election was widely viewed as a referendum on the prime minister’s Hindu nationalist politics, and the victory was won despite growing unemployment, fears of a recession and a slump in industrial production, foreign media reports.
