London: Giving wide coverage to the poll outcome in India, leading British dailies today (May 14, 2004) said the ouster of the Vajpayee Government came as a surprise, with one of them describing the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as "one of the greatest election upsets of all time".

"For the past decade India's leaders have presented to the world a vision of a brave, new, 'shining' India. It is a high-tech country of mobile phones, gleaming glass call centres and double-digit economic growth," 'The Daily Telegraph' said adding, "The shock defeat of India's ruling coalition was the electoral equivalent of a peasants' revolt."

In an editorial, 'The Guardian' said, "The result came as a complete surprise to everyone but the people who matter in an Indian election.

"...It was a massive vote of confidence in India's democratic system, a vote which swept aside declarations of a surging economy, a bountiful monsoon, a foreign policy success in the start of a rapprochement with Pakistan, and a slick campaign by the outgoing Government, which played on the feel good factor: 'India Shining'."

'The Times' daily in an article said, "India has always surprised the world, and especially when its unpredictable 660 million voters decide the country's future. The defeat of BJP Government, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, must rank as one of the greatest election upsets of all time, matched perhaps only by the defeat of (former British premier Winston) Churchill in 1945 and (former US President Harry) Truman's victory in 1948 in wrong footing almost every political pundit."