What Abdul’s victory in Michigan means for the future

 

The New Normal - Election Special

Obama endorses Biden for president to 'heal' America

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Mathes, April 14, 2020

Former US president Barack Obama endorsed his vice president Joe Biden's
2020 White House bid (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)

Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden's White House bid on Tuesday, saying his longtime vice president can unify and "heal" a nation struggling through some of its darkest moments.

The formal backing by perhaps the most popular politician in America is the latest boost for Biden's surging candidacy, and a further sign that Democratic leaders are rallying around the party flagbearer more than six months before November's election.

"Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery," Obama said in a 12-minute video.

"I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now."

The cherished endorsement comes at a time of deep national anxiety, with the vast majority of Americans under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 25,000 people in the United States.

With President Donald Trump's handling of the outbreak under the spotlight, Obama signalled he believed Biden -- with four decades of government experience -- would be a far more capable manager of the US response.

"Joe helped me manage H1N1 (influenza) and prevent the Ebola epidemic from becoming the type of pandemic we're seeing now," Obama said.

Biden, 77, promptly expressed his thanks in a tweet.

"Barack -- This endorsement means the world to Jill and me," the Democratic stalwart said.

"We're going to build on the progress we made together, and there's no one I'd rather have standing by my side."

Biden is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee to challenge Trump, after his lone remaining opponent Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race last week.

The leftist US senator from Vermont endorsed his ex-rival Monday, saying it was time for Americans to "come together" behind Biden.

Two-term president Obama also praised Sanders as a progressive champion whose energy and enthusiasm inspired young voters by the millions.

And he said it was time for those progressive supporters to help defeat the Republican incumbent.

"Right now, we need Americans of goodwill to unite in a great awakening against a politics that too often has been characterized by corruption, carelessness, self-dealing, disinformation, ignorance, and just plain meanness," Obama said.

"To change that, we need Americans of all political stripes to get involved in our politics and our public life like never before."

Special bond

Obama's endorsement comes as the coronavirus has frozen traditional campaigning.

Typically, such high-profile support would be followed by Obama's appearance at a major Biden rally, generating substantial national coverage and prompting a deluge of campaign donations.

But it remains unclear when, if at all, on-the-ground campaigning will resume.

Obama forged a special bond with Biden during the eight years the former Delaware senator served as his wingman, awarding him the presidential medal of freedom in January 2017.

But thus far in the 2020 race the nation's first African-American leader had largely flown under the political radar.

Despite his silence he was given a starring role in campaign advertisements by Biden, Sanders and other candidates as they scrambled for advantage ahead of key primaries, such as those on Super Tuesday on March 3.

At campaign events and debates Biden made sure to show he is running as Obama's heir, routinely highlighting the partnership with his former boss.

But Biden, after sitting out 2016 to mourn the loss of his son Beau to cancer, had made clear from the start he would run on his terms.

"I asked president Obama not to endorse," Biden said last April 25, the day he launched his candidacy. "Whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits."

Obama's endorsement comes relatively early in the race compared to 2016.

That year he waited until June 8 to endorse Hillary Clinton, who had clinched the Democratic nomination against Sanders two days earlier.

David Axelrod, chief strategist of Obama's 2008 campaign, said Obama had committed to all 2020 Democratic candidates to not put his finger on the scale until the nomination was decided.

"He wanted to be a unifying figure for the Democratic Party, and he didn't feel he could do that if he intervened too soon," Axelrod told CNN Tuesday.

"Now that the outcome is determined, he is clearly going to plunge into this."

Trump takes impeachment victory lap over 'vicious' Democrats

Yahoo – AFP, Sebastian Smith, February 6, 2020

US President Donald Trump is declaring victory (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump celebrated his impeachment acquittal Thursday in a rambling, emotional speech raging against the investigations that have overshadowed his entire administration.

Trump gathered scores of loyal Republican legislators, his legal team, his wife Melania and White House aides in the ceremonial East Room and brandished the front page of The Washington Post reading: "Trump acquitted."

"This is what the end result is," he said to a standing ovation.

Trump is on a victory lap after Wednesday's Senate vote clearing him of abusing his office and obstructing Congress.

But the event in the White House was an unusual mixture of Trump bitterly recounting Democratic-led investigations of his alleged corruption, joking and praise for those who stood by him.

It was "not a news conference, not a speech, it's not anything," Trump said. "It's a celebration."

Trump said he'd been "through hell" but we ended up "winning" against "vicious" Democrats.

Trump now hopes to seize the momentum to push his reelection campaign against a divided Democratic party.

He began earlier Thursday with an appearance at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a multi-faith gathering for Washington power brokers, business leaders and conservative evangelicals.

US President Donald Trump was not in forgiving mood at the annual National 

Prayer Breakfast (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

The theme of the breakfast was "love your enemy."

But from the moment he entered to the strains of "Hail to the Chief," Trump made his feelings clear by holding up a copy of USA Today with another banner headline proclaiming his acquittal.

In a tired, raspy voice, Trump indicated he was in no mood for forgiveness, saying he'd been "put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people."

He also ripped into Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who as speaker of the House led his impeachment, and Mitt Romney, the lone Republican senator to support the charges.

"I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong," he said in a clear reference to Romney, a devout Mormon who cited his faith as a reason for breaking ranks with Trump.

"Nor do I like people who say 'I pray for you' when they know that's not so," he added in a jab at Pelosi, who has often spoken of praying for Trump, and who was seated an arm's length away.

Right before Trump spoke, Harvard professor Arthur Patterson called on the audience to address the "contempt and polarization that is tearing our societies apart."

Verdict reveals divisions

Trump was impeached in the Democratic-led House last December over his attempts to push Ukraine into opening what would have been a politically damaging corruption probe into election rival Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump immediately claimed "victory" after his acquittal in a historic

 impeachment, but Democrats said the outcome resulted from an unfair trial 

(AFP Photo/Olivier DOULIERY)

But the Senate, where Trump's Republicans hold a majority, cleared him Wednesday in a party line vote illustrating the divisions running through the country ahead of the November polls.

Even though several conceded Trump's behavior was wrong, Republicans ultimately stayed loyal, voting to clear the president of charges of abuse of power, by 52 to 48, and of obstruction of Congress, by 53 to 47 -- far from the two-thirds supermajority required for conviction.

Romney, a longtime Trump foe, risked White House wrath to vote alongside Democrats on the first count, saying Trump was "guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust." He voted not guilty on the second charge.

Trump's impeachment and trial will leave a permanent stain on his record, as it did for the only two presidents to have encountered the same fate, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

While the White House immediately declared that Trump had obtained "full vindication and exoneration," Pelosi warned that by clearing Trump Republicans had "normalized lawlessness."

"There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence," said the top Democrat in Congress -- who a day earlier ripped up her copy of Trump's State of the Union address on live television.

"Sadly, because of the Republican Senate's betrayal of the Constitution, the president remains an ongoing threat."

But as he wound down the Senate proceedings, Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell said he was confident impeachment would ultimately damage the Democrats.

"They thought this was a great idea. At least for the short term, it has been a colossal political mistake."

Buttigieg takes lead in chaotic Iowa vote, Sanders second

Yahoo – AFP, Agnes Bun with Chris Lefkow in Washington, February 5, 2020

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg claimed victory in Iowa although
full results have not yet been released (AFP Photo/WIN MCNAMEE)

Manchester (United States) (AFP) - Democratic White House candidate Pete Buttigieg seized a shock lead in the chaotic Iowa caucuses, closely trailed by leftist senator Bernie Sanders, according to partial returns released on Tuesday after an embarrassing delay in reporting the results.

Progressive standard-bearer Elizabeth Warren was in third place followed by Joe Biden, a disappointing showing for the former vice president who has claimed he is best positioned to defeat Donald Trump in November.

Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has been battling Biden for the moderate wing of the party, hailed what he called an "astonishing victory" in the midwestern farm state which kicks off the presidential nominating process.

"I have never been more confident in our campaign, in our team, and in the vision that brought to us this point," Buttigieg told ecstatic supporters in New Hampshire, which holds the next nominating contest on February 11.

With polls still mixed on whether Americans would be comfortable with an openly gay president, Buttigieg also made a rare, though implicit, reference to his sexuality -- and the added significance it gave the Iowa outcome.

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wait for results 

at his caucus night watch party in Des Moines, Iowa (AFP Photo/kerem yucel)

"It validates for a kid, somewhere in a community, wondering if he belongs, or she belongs, or they belong in their own family, that if you believe in yourself and your country there's a lot backing up that belief," he said with a catch in his voice.

According to the partial results, Buttigieg, unknown nationally a year ago, leads with 26.8 percent followed by Sanders, the 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist, with 25.2 percent, followed by Senator Warren with 18.4 percent, and Biden with 15.4 percent.

The centrist senator from Minnesota Amy Klobuchar was in fifth place on 12.6 percent, with 71 percent of the precincts reporting.

The results were posted some 21 hours after Iowans gathered across the state to hold the first vote of the presidential nominating season.

Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, apologized profusely for the delay and blamed it on a "coding error" with an app being used for the first time to report the returns from precincts across the farm state.

Price pledged to provide the full results as soon as possible.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was trailing three challengers 

in the Iowa caucuses, according to partial results (AFP Photo/Scott Eisen)

"We have been working day and night to make sure that the results are accurate," he said. "And we also have a paper trail and documentation that we have been able to use to provide information to help verify the results."

As Iowa struggled to publish the results and frustrated Democratic candidates fumed, Trump gleefully pounced on the hold-up, describing the Democrats' failure to deliver timely results as an "unmitigated disaster."

"Nothing works, just like they ran the country," tweeted Trump -- hours before delivering his annual State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress under the cloud of impeachment.

'Shocking incompetence'

The results are usually known within hours of the conclusion of the caucuses, which do not involve a traditional ballot but see voters attending public gatherings and voicing support for the candidate of their choice.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren addresses her supporters 

during a caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa (AFP Photo/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)

Iowa kicks off the process of selecting presidential nominees every four years, but the fiasco surrounding the results is likely to increase calls for the state to lose the honor.

"The top finishers, probably Sanders and Buttigieg, could have used their showings to launch into New Hampshire," the next contest, said Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia.

"Instead, the story is the shocking incompetence of the Iowa Democratic Party."

He called for an end to the "strange system in a 91 percent white state" in favor of giving other states a chance to kick off the process.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner expressed alarm over the Iowa debacle.

"This chaos has created an environment where misinformation is now running rampant online, further undermining confidence in the democratic process," he said.

How the Democratic and Republican party primaries and caucuses choose 

presidential candidates for the 2020 election (AFP Photo/Jonathan WALTER)

With Iowa still mired in confusion, the Democratic candidates turned their sights on New Hampshire.

According to a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University poll released Monday, Sanders is leading in the Granite State with 24 percent, followed by Biden on 18 percent, Warren with 13 percent and Buttigieg with 11 percent.

Alluding to his own victory in Republican caucuses in Iowa, Trump said that "the only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is 'Trump.'"

"When will the Democrats start blaming RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, instead of their own incompetence for the voting disaster that just happened in the Great State of Iowa?" Trump tweeted.

In White House race, who is Obama's political heir?

Yahoo – AFP, Jerome CARTILLIER, November 17, 2019

Former US president Barack Obama -- seen here in Munich in September 2019 --
is quietly watching to see who will win the Democratic presidential primary (AFP
Photo/Christof STACHE)

Washington (AFP) - Some vying for the Democratic presidential nomination are loud and proud about their friendship with him. Others claim ideological kinship. And still others are taking distance from his record to stand out.

But one thing is for sure: Barack Obama is not saying anything -- well, much of anything.

The 58-year-old former president, who left power nearly three years ago with his popularity soaring, is quietly watching to see who in his party will duke it out with Donald Trump on November 3, 2020.

Beyond his positions on health care or immigration or education, numerous White House hopefuls have made reference to Obama's style -- a certain class in the way he exercised his power that is in stark contrast to the attitude of the billionaire Republican who succeeded him.

With less than three months to go before the first Democrats make their choice in the Iowa caucuses, the race is still entirely up in the air.

The next Democratic primary debate is set for Wednesday in Atlanta with 10 candidates on the stage and eager to score points -- Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer.

Barack Obama is seen here (L-R) campaigning in August 2008, in the White House 

in March 2012 and at a press conference in September 2016 (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

At this point, it's impossible to predict who will ultimately claim the party's nomination.

And the list of those who dream of wresting the Oval Office from Trump just keeps getting longer.

Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is once again flirting with a run, and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick threw his hat in the ring this week.

The late entrance by Patrick, one of the first black governors in US history who is close to Obama, fueled speculation about the doubts that the ex-president may have about the ability of the candidates already in the race, including his vice president Biden, to take out Trump.

'My friend Barack'

Many of the questions indeed focus on Biden, who has been saddled with the moniker "Sleepy Joe" by Trump. While he remains one of the favorites, observers fear the 76-year-old from Delaware cannot go the distance.

On the campaign trail, Biden never misses a chance to highlight his close relationship with his "friend Barack," and their eight years in power.

Biden is no stranger to campaign politics, and when he launched his latest White House bid, he underscored the fact that he had specifically asked Obama not to back him from the outset... even though the former president had never indicated he would do so.

The next Democratic presidential primary debate will take place on November 20, 

2019 in Atlanta (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

"President Obama has no plans to weigh in on the primary at this point -- preferring instead to let the candidates make their cases directly to voters," a source close to the former president told AFP.

But the 44th president of the United States has, unsurprisingly, ideas about how his party should approach the election to ensure that Trump is limited to just one term in office.

Little by little, he is positioning himself. In remarks Friday night to donors at the Democracy Alliance in Washington, he offered a few hints about how he sees the upcoming battle for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

'Tested' candidate

While he insisted on the need for new ideas from the party about reducing income inequality and other key issues, he issued a very clear warning about the temptation to take a sharp turn to the political left.

"Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality," he said.

Barack Obama -- seen here taking the oath of office in January 2009 with his wife 

Michelle at his side -- served two terms as US president (AFP Photo/PAUL J. RICHARDS)

"The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it," he added, noting that the United States was "a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement."

He called on the party faithful -- and by extension, its presidential candidates -- to be mindful that Democrats, independents and even moderate Republicans "are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain, you know, left-leaning Twitter feeds, or the activist wing of our party."

He did not name names, but Warren and Sanders -- who have called for nothing short of a "political revolution -- certainly come to mind.

Obama appeared to want to reassure the many Democrats who fear that the crowded primary will end up being counterproductive, given that the incumbent Trump is all ready to run with a massive campaign war chest.

"For those who get stressed about robust primaries, I just have to remind you that I had a very robust primary," he said, recalling his at times acrimonious 2008 battle with Hillary Clinton.

"I'm confident that at the end of the process, we will have a candidate that has been tested."

Moscow holds Taliban talks

Yahoo – AFP, September 15, 2019

Afghan National Army soldiers stand guard and inspect the site of a suicide
car bomb attack by the Taliban in Char Asiab district, south of Kabul, on
September 12 (AFP Photo/STR)

A Taliban delegation held talks with Russian officials in Moscow after US negotiations with the Afghan insurgents collapsed, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday.

"The Russian president's special representative for Afghanistan... Zamir Kabulov, hosted a Taliban delegation in Moscow," a ministry spokesman said, quoted by RIA Novosti state-funded news agency.

No date for the talks was given.

"The Russian side stressed the need to relaunch negotiations between the United States and the Taliban movement," the spokesman said.

"For their part, the Taliban confirmed their willingness to pursue dialogue with Washington," he added.

Until a week ago expectation had steadily mounted of a US-Taliban deal that would see the US drawdown of troop levels in Afghanistan and the Taliban offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups out.

But last week, Trump revealed he had cancelled an unprecedented meeting between the Taliban and himself in the United States and declared the talks with the militants "dead".

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said: "The Taliban has never been hit harder than it is being hit right now. Killing 12 people, including one great American soldier, was not a good idea. There are much better ways to set up a negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea how to recover!"

With more than 13,000 US troops still in Afghanistan, Trump has been eager to end America's longest war, launched 18 years ago after the September 11 attacks.

But fears are now growing of increased violence with presidential elections set for September 28 in Afghanistan.

The vote, the fourth since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, has already been delayed twice this year.

Government forces and Taliban have been engaged in heavy exchanges across the nation, with the militants vowing to continue fighting and make the US regret walking away from talks.

Russia has been trying to influence the peace negotiations and staged two meetings in Moscow with Afghan political leaders at the start of the year.

Democratic candidate attacks on Obama legacy rankle party

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Mathes, August 3, 2019

Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden (L) has made his political partnership with
ex-president Barack Obama a centerpiece of his White House campaign, but even
the former vice president has retreated from some Obama-era policies including
deportations (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama slashed US unemployment, protected child migrants and delivered health care to millions. But several 2020 candidates scorched the popular ex-president at their Democratic debate, a strategy that risks alienating voters as the party seeks to regain the White House.

With party divisions over ideology laid bare, progressive rivals to centrist frontrunner Joe Biden challenged the former vice president's record -- and by extension several Obama-era policies on deportation, coal, Afghanistan and health care.

Calling into question the legacy of perhaps the most revered living Democratic leader made for startling viewing at this week's presidential debates, when 20 Democrats took the stage over two nights.

Despite the strategy being a clear play by rivals to undercut Biden, who has made his eight-year partnership with America's first black president a centerpiece of his candidacy, it alarmed Obama loyalists concerned about repelling the very voters who Democrats need to motivate to the ballot box next year.

"To my fellow Democrats: Be wary of attacking the Obama record," Eric Holder, Obama's first attorney general, tweeted Thursday.

"Build on it. Expand it. But there is little to be gained -- for you or the party -- by attacking a very successful and still popular Democratic President."

As the nation's first black leader, Obama was and remains hugely popular among African Americans.

But he was also deeply concerned about unnerving white middle-class voters, and so faced resentment for not pursuing policies bold enough to close the racial wealth gap.

David Axelrod, a chief Obama campaign strategist, nevertheless argued Thursday that it was a "perilous path" for Democrats to slam Biden's Obama-era policies because that would require attacking Obama, who would win the nomination "in a walk" if he ran today.

Neera Tanden, who directed domestic policy for the Obama campaign and now heads the Center for American Progress think tank, was blunter, likening the approach to "political suicide."

"The GOP didn't attack (president Ronald) Reagan, they built him up for decades," tweeted Tanden, referring to the devotion with which Republicans treat their political hero.

"Dem Candidates who attack Obama are wrong and terrible," she added.

'Lessons of the past' 

The Obama ambush signaled what has become increasingly clear in the era of Trump: the party that seeks to oust him from power has shifted decidedly leftward.

While Obama remains a favorite among Democratic progressives, many are keen not to merely expand the Affordable Care Act -- popularly known as Obamacare -- as Biden is, but replace it with a universal, government-run health care system.

Candidates like liberal senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and even Obama's own housing secretary Julian Castro, suggested Biden was stuck in the past for embracing some Obama policies rather than seeking bold new initiatives.

"It looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past, and one of us hasn't," Castro memorably snapped at Biden, castigating the frontrunner for not splitting more forcefully from Obama's deportation policy.

Warren expressed frustration with the current health system and touted a shift to a government-led "Medicare for All" plan, and blasted "a corrupt, rigged system" that began before Trump and "that has helped the wealthy and the well-connected, and kicked dirt in the faces of everyone else."

The fusillade against Obama caught the attention of Trump, who gleefully told supporters at a rally Thursday that Democrats "spent more time attacking Barack Obama than they did attacking me, practically."

Biden acknowledged on Thursday in Detroit: "I was a little surprised at how much the incoming was about Barack."

But even Biden himself said he would not raise the deportation rate back to Obama-era levels. And he added that he had opposed Obama's surge of troops in Afghanistan.

Biden could have rallied the party faithful with a more spirited defense of the Obama presidency from the debate stage.

But the lack of such full-throated acclamation suggests the balancing act that many candidates are navigating, especially those further to the left of the former president.

Candidates like Senator Kamala Harris, who clashed with Biden on health care during the debate, was quick to cheer Obama afterwards, perhaps to smooth over concerns that she was attacking the ex-president's legacy.

"I have nothing but praise for president Obama," Harris, who is black, told reporters, noting he was the only recent president to achieve major health reforms.

"My proposal is about taking it to the next step," she said, adding that Obama put Americans "on the path where actually this next step is even possible."

Sanders unveils huge US student debt cancellation bill

Yahoo – AFP, June 24, 2019

Democratic Senator and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, seen here
addressing a rally in South Carolina, has unveiled proposed legislation to era
$1.6 trillion in student debt (AFP Photo/Logan Cyrus)

Washington (AFP) - Liberal US senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Monday rolled out a proposal to erase all $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, cleaning the slate for 45 million Americans.

"If we could bail out Wall Street, we sure as hell can #CancelStudentDebt," Sanders posted on Twitter shortly before announcing his major legislation in an event at the US Capitol.

The proposal, which is co-sponsored by Democrats Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar in the House of Representatives, would be paid for through a tax on Wall Street, according to the Sanders campaign.

"This is truly a revolutionary proposal," tweeted Sanders, whose calls for tuition-free college and student debt forgiveness gained traction during his 2016 presidential run.

"All Americans will get the college education or job training they need, while having all student debt forgiven."

The measure would have difficulty passing the Republican-led Senate. But it would escalate the political duel between Sanders and liberal rival Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has also proposed a massive plan for student loan debt elimination.

Under Warren's plan, more than 95 percent of the nearly 45 million Americans with student loan debt would have that debt cancelled. Her arrangement is estimated to cost some $640 billion.

Sanders said Sunday that his plan would "probably go further than Senator Warren's."

The hot-button issue has been a common thread on the 2020 campaign trail, with several Democrats noting the extraordinary financial burden under which many college students and graduates find themselves when they take on tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans.

Sanders argues that the debt prevents young Americans from buying homes, improving their credit, and engaging more deeply in the US economy:

"America has a moral, ethical and economic responsibility to tax our wealth more," said the group, which included George Soros, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, descendants of Walt Disney and the owners of the Hyatt hotel chain https://t.co/cBu3xFjyIq

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 24 juni 2019

Modi plots course after landslide Indian election win

Yahoo – AFP, Simon Sturdee and Abhaya Srivastava, May 24, 2019

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures during his victory speech at the
BJP headquarters in New Delhi (AFP Photo/PRAKASH SINGH)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met allies and former mentors Friday to plot a course for his second term after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty reeling.

A considerable to-do list includes addressing India's lacklustre economic growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken agriculture sector on which 70 percent of households depend.

Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago and defying predictions of a dip, final results confirmed Friday.

The main opposition Congress party, which has ruled the roost in India for much of its post-independence history, improved on its historic low five years ago of 44 seats but still only managed a paltry 52.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi even lost his own seat in Amethi, long a family bastion. He did win a seat in the southern state of Kerala, however, a quirk allowed under Indian election rules.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, joined a chorus of international well-wishers, with US President Donald Trump hailing Modi's "BIG" win and even Pakistan's Imran Khan tweeting congratulations.

On Thursday there were delirious scenes at BJP party offices across the nation of 1.3 billion people, including its headquarters where Modi, 68, was showered with petals by chanting fans.

"The voting numbers in India's election is the biggest event in the history of (the) democratic world. The entire world has to recognise the democratic strength of India," Modi told cheering crowds.

"Modi will make India great again. Modi is the strongest prime minister India has ever had and will get. We need to support his policies to prosper," said one supporter, Santosh Joshi.

On Friday, ahead of a cabinet meeting, Modi conferred with two now-sidelined former mentors, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, touching their feet in sign of respect.

'Can Modi deliver?'

With the election behind him, Modi must now tackle the economy and unemployment -- notably among women, who have one of the lowest labour market participation rates in the world.

The Congress Party under Rahul Gandhi suffered a major rout at the polls
(AFP Photo/SAJJAD HUSSAIN)

"The real question is can Modi deliver on his economic commitments -- for example creating the high number of jobs needed?" said Champa Patel, of the Chatham House think-tank.

"This is essential to address India's growing wealth inequalities. Can he address the challenges that millions of Indians face on a daily basis in a highly stratified country?"

India's agriculture industry is also in a dire state with drought, low prices and debt driving thousands of farmers to suicide in recent years.

The country's waterways are filthy and India is home to 22 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, killing 1.24 million people early in 2017 according to a Lancet Planetary Health study.

On Friday, around 80 to 100 people held a demonstration in Delhi as part of a global day of climate change to demand Modi does more on the environment, .

"We are here to fight for our right to breathe clean air," said Ishika Goyal, 16.

Modi and the Hindu nationalist BJP must also try to heal divisions which have left religious minorities -- including India's 170 million Muslims -- feeling anxious for the future.

During the campaign he managed to deflect criticism on these issues by focusing on national security, claiming he alone could defend India.

Congress meanwhile was picking up the pieces after the second election debacle in a row, having failed to win a single seat in 13 states and five union territories.

These included Rajasthan where it won state elections late last year. This time the BJP swept all 25 seats, and in Uttar Pradesh Congress took just one constituency.

An anti-Modi alliance in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 200 million people, also failed to prevent the BJP juggernaut sweeping 64 out of 80 seats.

Even in West Bengal, run by formidable Modi critic Mamata Banerjee, the BJP made major inroads, boosting its seat tally from two to 18.

Congress on Friday was forced to deny media reports that Gandhi -- the great-grandson, grandson and son of three former premiers -- had offered to throw in the towel.

"The Congress leadership has clearly failed. It is a discredited and bankrupt leadership," Kanchan Gupta from the Observer Research Foundation think-tank told AFP.

"It is astonishing that Rahul Gandhi has not yet resigned", Ramachandra Guha, a renowned historian, said on Twitter. "The Congress should dump the Dynasty."