India''s opposition celebrate election victory

VADODARA - India's Narendra Modi told cheering supporters Friday that "good times are coming" as he thanked them for their "love" which propelled him and his Hindu nationalist party to an historic election win.

Modi made his first comments on results day in his constituency of Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat, where thousands chanted his name.

"Good days are coming... After filing my nomination from Vadodara I was able to spend only 50 minutes here, but you gave me five lakh 70,000 votes (570,000)," he said, referring to his winning margin.

"I bow in front of the people of Vadodara for the love and each of the voters worked as Narendra Modi," he said.

Preliminary results at the end of the marathon six-week election showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on track for the first parliamentary majority by a single party since 1984.

Election Commission figures showed the BJP likely to win more than the 272 seats required for a majority on its own in the 543-seat parliament, with victories by its allies taking it easily in excess of 330.

Earlier Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Narendra Modi to congratulate him on his party's thumping victory in the country's general election, Singh's office said in a tweet.

"Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh calls Shri Narendra Modi and congratulated him on his party's victory in the Lok Sabha (parliamentary) elections," he said on his official Twitter account.

Congress, the national secular force that has run India for all but 13 years since independence, was set to crash to its worst ever result.

Modi, the 63-year-old son of a low-caste tea seller tainted by anti-Muslim violence in his home state of Gujarat in 2002, wrote on Twitter that "India has won. Good days are coming."

Singh, 81, an economist, will retire from politics after 10 years as prime minister in charge of the centre-left Congress government.

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Supporters of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrate as they watch election results in Varanasi. PHOTO/AFP

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Indian supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) celebrate the party election results. PHOTO/AFP

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Chief Minister of western Gujarat state and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (L) listens to his mother Hira Ba, in Gandhinagar. PHOTO/AFP

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TMC supporters celebrate near the house of party supremo and chief minister of eastern West Bengal state,  Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata. PHOTO/AFP

AFP