RIYADH/DAMMAM/JEDDAH, 14 May 2004 — India’s parliamentary election results yesterday stunned Indian expatriates across the Kingdom, who nonetheless welcomed the verdict in favor of Congress. More than one expat said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s divisive communal politics cost it dearly, as did anger among the millions of rural poor who felt left behind by the country’s economic boom. “The economic benefits have failed to reach the hundreds of millions living in crushing poverty in rural India, where electricity, jobs and clean water are still luxuries,” one of them said.