Thousands greet Modi as he arrives in Delhi

The agenda will broaden to include some key questions: What to do with senior leaders such as LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who continue to make discordant noises and seem less than ready to accept Modi’s primacy?

Narendra Modi thundered to victory on Friday in India's election, trouncing the ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in a seismic political shift that gives the Hindu nationalist and his party a mandate for sweeping economic reform.

Modi's landslide, the most resounding election victory India has seen in 30 years, was welcomed with a blistering rally on India's stock markets and raucous celebrations at offices across the country of his Bharatiya Janata Party, where supporters danced, let off fireworks and handed out sweets.

Singh's Congress party suffered its worst wipeout, a big boost to Modi's goal of ending the dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi family that has governed for most of the 67 years of independent India.

Here's a minute-to-minute update and poll analysis of all that is happening today:

11:15 am: Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari were among senior BJP leaders to welcome Narendra Modi at the airport. 

11:00 am: Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi has arrived in Delhi. He's just stepped out of the IGI airport. Thousands of people at the airport, mostly Bharatiya Janata Party workers, gathered around taking pictures on their mobiles. Modi, who has heavy SPG protection, immediately upon getting out of his car flashed his victory sign, waving out to the people.

10:30 am: An analysis by The Hindu of the 2014 election result have found the number of Muslim MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha will be the lowest in 50 years. 

Just 22 Muslims have been elected, seven fewer than in the outgoing House.Muslims now make up just over four per cent of parliamentarians despite their accounting for over 13 per cent of the population as of 2001. There were over 30 Muslim MPs for the past 15 years, over 25 for the 20 years before that and over 40 for the 10 years between 1980 and 1989.


10:09 am: In his final address to the nation as its Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh said he had fulfilled his responsibilities with diligence and honesty; that he and his party accepted the verdict of the nation with humility.

10:05 am: Narendra Modi will be landing in New Delhi from Gandhinagar any moment now. The party has planned to make his entry a triumphal carnival: BJP President Rajnath Singh will lead the bevy of party leaders greeting him at the airport; his progress from the airport to the party headquarters at 11, Akbar Road will be a roadshow. The party has pulled out all stops to make it the mother of all spectacles -- and the resulting carnival is expected to bring the capital to a standstill this morning.

9:50 am: The eyes of the nation, fixed for the past 24 hours on the election results both collective and individual, have now turned to the national capital. In New Delhi, at half past noon, the BJP Parliamentary Party will meet.

The biggest outcome is also the most predictable: The party’s newly elected MPs will by unanimous acclaim elect Narendra Modi as the leader of the Parliamentary Party — an obvious, but necessary step, since it is the official leader of the single largest party or group that gets to go to the President of India and stake a claim to form the next government.

Once that necessary first step is taken, the agenda will broaden to include some key questions: What to do with senior leaders such as LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who continue to make discordant noises and seem less than ready to accept Modi’s primacy? Since the oath-taking is fixed for May 21, who will make it to the first cut of ministers who will take the oath along with Modi?

The advantage the BJP has is that in framing answers to these questions — particularly the second, about naming people to the Modi ministry — it does not have to account for any coalition compulsions, since its overwhelming mandate gives it free rein to make its decisions without any regard for external opinion.

While the main party leaders begin to work on such procedural questions, New Delhi is already turning into a block party; reports speak of throngs of party supporters heading there to line the streets to greet the triumphant Narendra Modi; stocks of flowers in Delhi and adjoining territories are being exhausted as Delhi dresses up to greet its new leader.

In all likelihood, the party leadership will hold a press conference after the meeting; equally certain that Modi will make an impromptu speech to the assembled party workers.