NEW DELHI: Defying speculation of a close fight, the ruling Congress party yesterday swept to victory in India’s 15th general election.

Addressing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi thanked the voters. “First of all I would like to thank the people for reposing faith in the Congress party once again. The people of India know what is good for them and they always make the right choice,” she said.

On the future role of her son Rahul, who was credited with reviving the party in the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh, she said: “That is a decision for the prime minister to make.”

With most votes counted, the Election Commission said the Congress-led alliance had won — or was leading in — races for 261 seats in the 543-seat Parliament. The rival National Democratic Alliance, which is led by the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came up short with 158. The Congress party alone, without the support of its coalition allies, had won or was leading in 205 seats, putting it far ahead of all other parties. While the results were a clear victory for the Congress coalition it still leaves it short of the 272 seats needed to govern alone and will require the support of other parties.

It was celebration time for Congress workers and supporters at the party headquarters. Acknowledging Rahul’s contribution to the party’s victory, Jyotiraditya Scindia said: “All credit goes to Rahul Gandhi for single-handedly reviving Congress in Uttar Pradesh. What worked was the combination of Manmohan Singh’s policies and Rahul Gandhi’s thrust on party cadres and youth.” Congress won fewer than 10 seats out of 80 in the northern state in 2004. This time its tally crossed 20.

Conceding defeat, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said: “We accept the voters’ mandate with humility. If we have an overall view of the trends, then we see that we have performed below our expectations as we had expected our tally to improve from the last elections.”

The communists, who were battered in their strongholds in West Bengal and Kerala, admitted their failure. Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat said: “The CPI(M) and the leftists have suffered a major setback in these elections. This necessitates a serious examination of the reasons for the party’s poor performance.”

Regional heavyweight Lalu Prasad also suffered humiliation in Bihar. The party of Nitish Kumar, the chief minister and Lalu’s bête noire, swept the poll in the state with the BJP.