New Delhi: Narendra Modi, who won a massive mandate yesterday to be India's next Prime Minister, thanked BJP workers at the party's main office and Delhi and said the historic win "belongs to 126 crore Indians." (
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He arrived at the office after a 20-km victory drive from the Delhi airport down roads lined with cheering people waving saffron flags. BJP workers followed his cavalcade in many cars and on motorcycles. (
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At the airport, Mr Modi, 63, dressed in a blue jacket, stood partly out of a moving SUV, flashing the victory sign. (
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The change in status from Chief Minister of Gujarat to PM-to-be was signaled by a security upgrade as Mr Modi reached the Ahmedabad airport in a big cavalcade of white cars this morning. In Delhi, much khaki dotted the crowds at the airport and security men conspicuously surrounded his car. (
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At the BJP head office, the elite National Security Guards or NSG sanitised the area.
Mr Modi has authored for the BJP the most emphatic electoral victory by any political party since 1984. The BJP will have 283 members in the 16th Lok Sabha, ensuring that it has a majority in the house on its own. With its allies it has 337. (
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He later attended a meeting of the party's parliamentary board, a group of top 12 leaders, including leaders not seen as close to him like LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi.
They are expected to have discuss the process and dates for electing Mr Modi leader of the BJP's new members of parliament and government formation. The party also has to decide who will replace Mr Modi as Gujarat chief minister.
After the meeting, Mr Modi will leave for Varanasi, the Uttar Pradesh constituency that handed him a resounding victory in his first Lok Sabha election. He will offer prayers at the banks of the Ganga river. Another big victory celebration is expected there.