Sonia Gandhi’s photograph and a story headlined ‘India, surprise victory for Sonia Gandhi’ in Friday’s edition of Italian newspaper La Stampa. (AFP)

What leading newspapers across the globe said on the Congress victory:

Italy

Corriere della Sera: “Italian Sonia Gandhi triumphs.”

La Repubblica: “Sonia Gandhi: An Italian triumphs in India.”

“Against all expectations, there is now little doubt that the Italian from Orbassano will become India’s next Prime Minister.”

La Stampa: “Sonia has taken the place of Indira Gandhi in the hearts of the deprived masses.”

“India’s economic miracle didn’t save Vajpayee.”

United Kingdom

The Daily Telegraph: “For the past decade, India’s leaders have presented to the world a vision of a brave, new, ‘Shining’ India. It is a hi-tech country of mobile phones, gleaming glass call centres and double-digit economic growth. The shock defeat of India’s ruling coalition was the electoral equivalent of a peasants’ revolt”.

The Guardian: “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’.”

“From a small town in Tuscany to leader of one billion Indians: Gandhi dynasty rises again.”

“Sonia Gandhi’s rise from small-town, post-war Italy to the whitewashed British Raj bungalows of Delhi is a story of love and death in India’s political cauldron, culminating in the most sensational victory since India became independent in 1947.”

The Times: “India has always surprised the world, and especially when its unpredictable 660 million voters decide the country’s future. The defeat of the 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.”

Pakistan

The News: “The election results will be a matter of concern for Pakistan as much was being put in store by a victorious Vajpayee taking the peace and normalisation process to its fruition. Vajpayee was seen in Pakistan as a highly successful chief executive mainly because he had overcome years of tension and bitterness….”

Daily Times: “Of concern to Pakistan is that without Vajpayee’s moderate leadership, the BJP was likely to revert to its pro-Hindu, anti-Pakistan rhetoric again and put the Congress government on the defensive.”

The Dawn: “Judging from the pronouncements of various political leaders, it appears the government which takes over in New Delhi will sustain the BJP policy on Pakistan and Kashmir.”

USA

New York Times: “Liberalising economic policies carried out under (Prime Minister Atal Bihari) Vajpayee’s BJP government have given India statistically impressive economic growth. Yet in a country where poor people vote in large numbers, most of them remain unimpressed.”

China

The Xinhua news agency said the Congress’ performance was “brilliant” since political experts had written it off. China Daily carried a huge photograph of Sonia Gandhi on its front page. The communist party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily had a detailed report on the elections.

Russia

Kommersant: “India shining not for all.”

Bangladesh

The Daily Star: “The Congress made a stunning comeback as resentment that the benefit of economic reforms fostered by the BJP did not reach ordinary Indians revived the party.”