Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born heir to India’s most famous political dynasty, the Ghandi dynasty, said she would seek to form a government that was “strong, stable and secular”.
Congress, which left power in 1996 after ruling India for 45 years, huddled late today to begin choosing a prime minister, with many pushing for Ms Gandhi, the 57-year-old widow of slain former premier Rajiv Gandhi.
But the Hindu nationalists – and some potential Congress allies – say Ms Gandhi is unacceptable as they still consider her a foreigner even if she only appears in Indian dress and speaks in fluent, if accented, Hindi.
More than 370 million people voted in the national election, held on five dates from April 20 to allow poll workers, police and soldiers to fan out to the nearly 687,500 voting stations.
Little violence was reported during the vote, despite a boycott by separatists including in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
