DHAKA: As she savoured the prospect of her brother Narendra becoming India’s prime minister, Vasantiben Modi chortled at the idea that a one-time tea boy would soon be calling the shots over Delhi’s traditional elite.

‘They can’t believe it, can’t believe that someone from such a simple background could beat them,’ Vasantiben told media from her modest two-storey home, close to the town in Gujarat where the siblings grew up.

Results on Friday showed Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and its allies headed for a landslide win over the secular Congress party that has ruled India for all but 13 years of its history as an independent nation.

Congress’s election frontman was Rahul Gandhi, the latest in a bloodline which has already provided three of India’s prime ministers, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1647 HRS, MAY 16, 2014