World

Nationalists Win India Vote

October 7, 1999 / 6:50 AM EDT / AP

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 22-party alliance won India's parliamentary elections, unofficial results showed Thursday, providing a chance for a stable government that may sign a nuclear test ban treaty.

With winners unofficially declared for 489 seats, Vajpayee's alliance had won 272 parliamentary seats while chief rival Congress and its allies trailed at 123. Results for all but six remaining constituencies were expected late today and the official results were to be declared Friday.

Parties allied with Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP) were projected to win more, as vote counting continued.

India's stock exchange, looking for stability after four governments in four years, reacted with confidence to television projections showing Vajpayee's alliance would win at least 294 seats, a comfortable majority of the 543 elected seats in the lower house of parliament.

His alliance was collecting 40 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for the opposition Congress and its partners.

Earlier Thursday, supporters gathered at Vajpayee's house and threw garlands around his neck. He had emerged briefly Wednesday to flash a Â"VÂ" for victory sign and to say he was expecting to form a government. He planned to meet with the leaders of his alliance Friday.

Â"The allies this time are much more reliable. I don't see any problems for a couple of years,Â" said Sudhir Jalan, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The Congress Party, led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, was facing its worst showing. Projections from the ballot counting showed Congress, which governed India for 45 of its 52 years, winning 108 seats, down from 140 in last year's election.

Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh rejected suggestions that Mrs. Gandhi was to blame for the party's poor showing, saying errors in strategy and voters' concern with local issues were responsible.

Â"To extrapolate that this is a referendum on Mrs. Gandhi is just not true,Â" he said.

Within weeks, the new government must reach crucial decisions on whether to sign a global treaty banning nuclear tests and formulate its own nuclear doctrines for its developing atomic arsenal.

The government also faces the challenge of putting relations with Pakistan back on track after a fierce border confrontation this summer that cost more than 1,000 lives.