NEW DELHI — Millions of impoverished Indians angered over being left out of their country's economic boom handed the opposition Congress party a stunning victory in Parliament on Thursday, reviving the storied Gandhi dynasty in one of the biggest political upsets since independence.
The party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conceded the vote, leaving Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, poised to take the helm of the world's largest democracy.
"Over the next few days, the process of government formation will gather momentum," Gandhi told a raucous news conference in which reporters jostled and shouted, eager to get comment from a politician who rarely speaks to the press. "We will take the lead, ensure our country has strong, stable and secular government."
When asked if she would be prime minister, she refused to answer, saying only that it would be up to the alliance leaders.
Her victory was sweetened by her 34-year-old son, Rahul Gandhi, winning a Parliament seat. "My mother is my hero," he told reporters from the family stronghold of Amethi, in northern Uttar Pradesh state. "Today's verdict is on my mother's work and the strength of the Congress."
With the final tally for the 539 constituencies being counted from the three-week election, Congress and its leftist party allies had collected 279 seats, a majority of the national legislature and enough to form the new government.
The ousted Bharatiya Janata party and its allies had 187 seats, and other smaller parties and independents had 73.
The tally took some 16 hours, with more than 1,200 counting centers adding up 380 million digital ballots from electronic voting machines.
Vajpayee, who quit Thursday night, campaigned on the slogan "India Shining," which focused on the country's 8 percent growth rate, a push in information technology and a pledge to make India a developed nation by 2020. But Vajpayee's decision to call the election six months early was a devastating miscalculation.
"We have given up office, but not our responsibility to serve the nation. We have lost an election, but not our determination," Vajpayee said in a somber address to the nation late Thursday night. "Victory and defeat are a part of life, which are to be viewed with equanimity."
Results indicated millions of rural poor people abandoned Vajpayee and his "India Shining" campaign while also rejecting his Hindus-first message in favor of the secularism of Gandhi's Congress party.
"They went all out to prove 'India Shining,' whereas the reality was much different in the rural belt and small towns," economist B.B. Bhattacharya of the Indian Institute of Economic Growth told the Press Trust of India.
India's stock market, which turned jittery on news that Vajpayee would be ousted, rebounded after it became clear Congress would provide a stable government.
Business leaders said they expect Congress to continue with the economic reforms, which were initiated by the same party in 1991.
Congress focused its campaign on the country's 300 million people who still live on less than a dollar a day. It hammered away at the lack of even basic infrastructure, electricity and potable water. India's per capita income has grown from $370 to $480 in just four years, but it's still one of the world's lowest.
While well-educated urbanites were dazzled by the BJP's "India Shining" campaign, one-fourth of the rural population is still miserably poor and they traditionally turn out to vote in much bigger numbers.
Still, Vajpayee excelled as a diplomat and forged close ties with Washington and longtime foes, Israel and China. He raised hopes of a lasting peace with Pakistan by calling for dialogue over disputed Kashmir.
The Bush administration said it would keep encouraging India and Pakistan to settle their differences through diplomacy.
"We've had excellent relations with India and we look forward to continuing those relations," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said while congratulating Congress on its victory.
Pakistan expressed confidence Thursday that the peace process would continue. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the process involved the two governments, not "individual personalities."
"From the very beginning, we've been supporting the prime minister's initiatives vis-a-vis Pakistan," Gandhi replied.
Meanwhile, in Gujarat state, the heartland of support for the BJP, voters appeared to reject religion-based politics, slashing the party's representation in Parliament. Gujarat was the scene of violence between Hindus and Muslims that killed 1,000 people in 2002 and the BJP was widely accused of not doing enough to prevent the killings.
The Gandhi dynasty dominated Indian politics since independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, headed the country from independence until his death in 1964. He was followed by his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who was killed by her bodyguards in 1984. Rajiv, her son and Sonia's husband, took power and ruled until 1989. Two years later, he too was assassinated.
The family is not related to Mohandas Gandhi, India's independence leader.
During the campaign, BJP leaders called Gandhi's Indian-born children foreigners and stoked debate — dubbed the "Sonia factor" — over whether a foreign-born citizen should rule India.