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"CHENNAI, India \u2014 Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi is poised to become India\u2019s new prime minister as his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured one of India\u2019s most decisive elections in more than a quarter century. Modi and the BJP will take over a government that's not only besieged with charges of corruption and nepotism, but one that's also accused of slowing India\u2019s economic growth.\nThe 550 million votes that were cast over a six-week period were counted on Friday. The BJP is expected to win 282 of the 543 seats to the Lok Sabha, India\u2019s lower house of Parliament. The victory means the toppling of the Indian National Congress (INC), which has led India for most of the past 67 years.\nSee also: India's New Prime Minister Wants to Remember Every 'Congrats' Forever\nIn what is a first since the election succeeding the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a single party \u2014 the BJP \u2014 has emerged with a majority. Its victory, while partly a product of poor governance by the outgoing United Progressive Alliance (headed by the INC), has been secured by the impressive nation-wide campaign led by Modi, who will take over as India\u2019s 14th prime minister.\n\nBJP workers celebrating as election results showed a landslide win for BJP led NDA on May 16, 2014 in Ranchi, India.Image: Diwakar Prasad/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesModi\u2019s rise from a questionable past\nModi is a hugely divisive figure. His rise to the top has been both improbable and meteoric. As a young boy who helped his father sell tea in a small town in the western Indian state of Gujarat, he was enamored by the philosophy of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is a Hindu right-wing organization that has drawn inspiration from, among others, Nazi Germany.\nHe spent his initial years running chores for the RSS top brass, but Modi slowly began to gain a reputation as a conscientious worker with a keen eye for politics. In 1985, the RSS lent Modi to the BJP, a party closely aligned to the Sangh in ideology. Here, Modi steadily rose up the ranks, using his excellent organizational abilities to help strategize victories for the party in Gujarat.\n\nNarendra Modi greets supporters after casting his vote in Gujarat state elections in December 2002.In 2001, Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat, a role somewhat akin to the governor of an American state. He won three consecutive terms in the state, largely campaigning on a supposed plank of economic growth and industrialization. But his time as chief minister of Gujarat is marred by a statewide riot in 2002 in which nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslim, were massacred by Hindu mobs.\n\nHindu mobs attacked Muslims across Gujarat in February and March 2002, burning homes and businesses in deadly riots. Modi has never apologized nor taken responsibility for the tragedy. Image: Manish Swarup/Associated PressCritics allege that Modi oversaw the riots by offering \u2014 if not explicit support \u2014 a tacit approval to the mob. He is yet to be completely exonerated of all wrongdoing even though a special investigation team, appointed by India\u2019s Supreme Court, has found the evidence against him to be insufficient. The report, however, has been criticized for ignoring a \u201Cwide spectrum of disturbing circumstantial evidence.\u201D Modi has, so far, offered no apology \u2014 let alone an explanation \u2014 for the incident.\nThe campaign\nIn his campaign for the recent elections, Modi restricted his pitch to the economy. He promised to build new roads, expand India\u2019s manufacturing capacity, plug inflation and create jobs for the struggling masses. For a newly formed middle class, suddenly hampered by a flailing economy, Modi\u2019s vision offers a fresh hope.\nSee also: A Nation of 1.2 Billion Votes: Photos From India's Election\nIndia's middle class believes that, as an authoritarian figure, Modi can help cut red tape and control corruption. In Gujarat, according to many popular accounts, Modi has helped revive a flailing economy. India\u2019s young voters, disillusioned by the ruling Congress party\u2019s indecision and dishonesty, expect Modi to replicate Gujarat\u2019s success across the nation.\nModi\u2019s critics, however, worry that he will further polarize the country and will do little to assuage the fears of the minority population. Even in his native state, Muslims feel unequal. They believe the growth of the state has been non-inclusive. In fact, according to some critics, the figures presented by the Gujarat government exaggerate the growth made by the state.\nModi\u2019s policies, as the nobel lauerate economist Amartya Sen has argued, however suffers from a lack of social welfare. Gujarat lags behind, in Sen'e estimation in the fields of education and healthcare and breeds greater gender inequality than many other Indian states.\nModi and the U.S.\nIn 2005, the U.S. government denied Modi a visa to visit the country over his suspected role in the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Shortly after the riots, the New York Times asked Modi if he wished he had handled the riots any differently. He told the newspaper that his only regret was that he failed to handle the media better.\n''We have 18,600 villages,'' he told the Times. ''Ninety-eight percent of Gujarat was peaceful. Is it not a credit for the administration, the government?''\nBut Modi\u2019s relationship with the U.S. already appears to be changing. He met with the U.S. Ambassador to India in February, and on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Modi, tweeting that he looks forward to \u201Cgrowing shared prosperity.\u201D\n\nCongrats to @narendramodi and BJP. Look forward to working w/you/growing shared prosperity/security w/world's largest democracy.\n\u2014 John Kerry (@JohnKerry) May 16, 2014\n\n\u00A0\nWhat does India have in store?\nIn granting the BJP a huge mandate, voters have looked beyond Modi\u2019s fundamental philosophical leanings and his flawed record in ensuring a secular atmosphere. This might ensure a stable government with a wherewithal to fix the economy. But if Modi feels compelled to return to his Hindu national past (which many believe is an integral part of his governance model), this might also prove too costly for India\u2019s status as a liberal, inclusive society.\nSuhrith Parthasarathy is a lawyer and journalist based in Chennai, India. He can be reached on Twitter @suhrith.\n\n\nIndia Election Celebrations\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate the party\u2019s winning preliminary result outside their office in Gauhati, India, Friday, May 16, 2014.\n\nImage: Anupam Nath/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIndian Trinamool Congress (TMC) party supporters celebrate the party's election results near the residence of party supremo and West Bengal state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.\n\nImage: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAn Indian family follows election results on a television inside their home in Gauhati.\n\nImage: Anupam Nath/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP workers celebrate outside BJP Headquarters. \n\nImage: Vijayanand Gupta/Hindustan Times/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOpposition BJP leader and India's next prime minister Narendra Modi greets the media as he leaves the residence of his 90-year-old mother in Gandhinagar.\n\nImage: Saurabh Das/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP supporters dance outside their party office in Bangalore.\n\nImage: Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA band of Indian musicians plays music for a group of paying customers in New Delhi.\n\nImage: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP supporters dance and burst firecrackers in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.\n\nImage: Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP supporters hold a shivling, a symbolic representation of Hindu God Shiva, in Uttar Pradesh.\n\nImage: Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIndian policemen on duty watch election results at a counting station in New Delhi.\n\nImage: Manish Swarup/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nModi gestures as a flower garland is placed around him before speaking to supporters in Vadodara.\n\nImage: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAn old BJP worker in a jubilant mood in Chandigarh.\n\nImage: Keshav Singh/Hindustan Times/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSupporters of Modi listen to his address from the rooftops during a public rally after Modi's victory in Vadodara.\n\nImage: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP supporters light firecrackers to celebrate the party\u2019s winning performance in the general elections in Varanasi.\n\nImage: Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBJP supporters set off firecrackers at Dashasamedh Ghat during the nightly Ganga Arti puja ceremony to celebrate the BJP's election results in Varanasi.\n\nImage: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/05/16/narendra-modi-india-elections/>