Hindu nationalist premier Atal Behari Vajpayee, touted his peace initiatives with nuclear rival and neighbour Pakistan and a perceived heady feeling over robust economic growth. He campaigned on "India Shining" - a reference to what they said was a feel-good factor sweeping the country.

It seemed to be a cruel joke in a nation where a third of the people still live on less than $1 a day and human development indices are largely appalling. As it turns out, most of the voters were not amused and decided to put the lights out on the BJP, leaving politicians and analysts stunned by the extent of the defeat, despite glowing reports about BJP's seeming invincibility.

The question is not whether economic reforms will continue. The question is about ways and means of making reforms meaningful for the poor and the dispossessed.
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ITALY HERALDS 'FIRST WOMAN PM'

Italy is celebrating what could be its first woman prime minister... albeit, prime minister of India.

BBC News
Friday, May 14, 2004

For Sonia Gandhi, whose election victory could make her India's next leader, was born in northern Italy.

The mayor of her home town of Orbassano, near Turin, offered "warm congratulations" to the woman who married into the Gandhi dynasty.

"Finally - an Italian woman as prime minister," joked Margherita Boniver of the Italian foreign ministry.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera proclaimed on its front page: "Italian Sonia Gandhi triumphs."

"Sonia Gandhi: an Italian triumphs in India," said La Repubblica.

Family silent

But the party in Orbassano itself was muted because Mrs Gandhi's family has never commented on her political career.

Sonia married Rajiv Gandhi at the age of 21, after meeting him at Cambridge University.

Both Rajiv and his mother, Indira, became prime minister but were assassinated, leaving Sonia Gandhi as the inheritor of India's greatest modern political dynasty.

As Mrs Gandhi prepared to put together a ruling coalition, the mayor of her home town, Carlo Marroni, said: "Orbassano and its entire administration express their warm congratulations for this victory by our fellow citizen."

But there was still no word from her family. "Years ago her family asked that we respect their silence," said an aide to the mayor.

"Her mother and two sisters were upset by the events that had shaken the (Gandhi) family, and they asked that they be left in peace."

"Yes, we are proud, but we also respect the family's desire to be left alone," he added.

Sonia was born Sonia Maino in December 1946.

Impressed

Her father, a building contractor, is now dead, but her mother and two sisters still live in or around Orbassano, a town of 25,000.

Sonia Gandhi's heritage is not well known in Italy, but those who knew about it are impressed with her success in the Indian election.

"It's good that an Italian can get elected in a country that's so far away, and that's culturally so different," said Gilberto Fulvi, a 30-year-old who works in a youth centre...

Mrs Gandhi is an Indian citizen, and said before the election that she did not see her Italian birth as a problem for Indian voters. She said in a television interview: "I never felt they look at me as a foreigner. Because I'm not. I am Indian."

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