Congress Party wins India elections 2009

India’s ruling Congress party (INC) has won more than 191 of the 543 parliamentary seats up for grab in the 2009 India elections, beating out the main opposition bloc led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While short of a majority, the result means incumbent prime minister, Dr. Mammohan Singh, will form the 18th Indian government since elections were first held in the world’s second most populated country in 1947.

With more than 70 percent of the votes counted, the Congress party-led coalition of Dr. Singh could end up with more than 240 of the lower house seats.

India is the most populous democracy in the world and more than 714 million of its 1.2 billion population were eligible to vote in the five-stage election process that ended on May 13.

Deputy Election Commissioner, R. Balakrishnan from the national election commission said voter turnout was approximately 60 percent, for the marathon process that took one month to complete.

According to the constitution, a new parliament has to be in place by June 2 and Prime Minister Singh today called a cabinet meeting for Monday ahead of what will be his second five-year term. In being reelected to the country’s top post Dr. Singh becomes only the second prime minister in the country’s history to win back-to-back parliamentary elections. The first to do so was India’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.