The charismatic Narendra Modi will lead a majority government for India. The last election to produce a majority government was in 1984.
Modi's journey from the humble origins of a low-caste tea vendor to prime minister of over a billion people is no less stirring than U.S. President Barack Obama's story, with rather more substantial executive experience. Modi won because voters rejected the stale, populist and patronizing politics of a corrupt Congress coterie around a cocooned first family. They were drawn instead to Modi's promise that the country deserves and can do better: remember the hope and excitement of "Yes we can"?
The biggest indictment of Congress may well be that Modi could never have been their prime ministerial candidate. The cultural-intellectual elite fears he could unleash sectarian violence; ordinary Indians hope his victory portends development, growth, jobs, public probity and administrative competence.