Highlights: President Kovind asks Modi to decide council of ministers, date of swearing-in ceremony

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 23, led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a super-sized victory for a second term in office, as his message of nationalism, security, Hindu pride and a New India was wholeheartedly embraced by voters across large swathes of the country.

The BJP got an absolute majority bagging 290 of the 511 seats, results of which were declared this morning and was on course to touch the 300-seat mark in the 542-member Lok Sabha. Leading in another 13 seats, the BJP has already surpassed its 2014 performance when it won 282 seats.

With the elections establishing the 68-year-old Modi as the most popular leader in decades, the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance(NDA) are poised to clinch around 350 seats as against their previous 336.

Such was the force of the BJP wave that even Congress President Rahul Gandhi lost in his bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh to Smriti Irani, but in consolation prize won the Wayanad seat in Kerala. Former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda also bit the dust when he lost the Tumkur seat in Karnataka where the BJP bagged 25 of the 28 seats.

After Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Modi is the third prime minister of the country and the first non-Congress one -- who has been able to retain power for a second term with full majority in Lok Sabha. The victory margin left the combined opposition in the dust, with the Congress Party topping the group winning or leading in 52 seats, according to the partial results.