ModiBJPVictory_India
Supporters of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrate as they burn crackers outside their party's headquarters in New Delhi May 16, 2014. Opposition candidate Narendra Modi will be the next prime minister of India, with early election results on Friday showing the pro-business Hindu nationalist and his party headed for the biggest victory the country has seen in 30 years. Reuters/Adnan Abidi

India’s Congress party accepted defeat in the 2014 elections, as results of the nine-phase elections conducted over the last few weeks across the vast subcontinent came in Friday, and indicated a significant majority in the lower house of parliament for the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, and its leader Narendra Modi.

The numbers, which poured in from across the country after counting of votes began Friday morning, showed that the Congress, which had been in power for the last decade, was on track to suffer its worst electoral defeat till date. By Friday afternoon, counting showed the Congress party had won only 46 parliamentary seats out of the total 543 while the Modi-led BJP party was leading with 283 seats, prompting Congress party officials to openly concede defeat and call for introspection within the party ranks.

"We could not match up to the resources of the BJP. We could not match up to their ad campaign, the full page ads they came up with...the amount they spent," Ajay Maken, a senior Congress leader, told NDTV, a local news network, adding: "I think that we were not able to convey to the people the amount of work we have done...that needed to be communicated more to the people."

Rajeev Shukla, a senior Congress leader also said, according to news reports, "We accept defeat. We are ready to sit in the opposition."

As a victory for the business- and reform-friendly Modi became more certain through the morning, India’s benchmark stock exchange BSE Sensex rose more than 1,000 points in early trade to be up nearly 3.5 percent while the Indian rupee climbed to a 10-month high of 58.92 against the U.S. dollar.

“Investors are very happy. The market is looking for clarity and vision, and all leads so far are pointing we could see a clear win for BJP,” Deven Choksey, managing director and CEO of Mumbai-based K.R. Choksey Shares and Securities said, according to Mint, a local newspaper.

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