India's frontrunner to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced victory of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party through his Twitter handle even as counting of votes was underway. Triumphant Modi wrote “India has won. Good days are coming.”

The top official in Gujarat state for over a decade, Modi often contrasted his humble roots with the posh background of his main rival, 43-year-old Rahul Gandhi, heir to India's most powerful political dynasty. As the career politician led his party through a dazzling, high-tech election campaign, Modi called voters' attention to his mother riding a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw to cast her ballot earlier this month. “I am the chief minister of a prosperous state ... And my 90-year-old mother goes to vote in an auto-rickshaw,” the white-bearded Modi boasted, punching a fist through the air as he claimed his place by India's poor masses.