Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will formally tender his resignation to President A P J Abdul Kalam after a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Accepting defeat in the elections, Vajpayee will resign Thursday evening, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor George Fernandes said after an hour-long emergency meeting among the leaders of the ruling NDA.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Venkiah Naidu also said that the NDA has decided to sit in the opposition as it has not got the people's mandate.

A meeting of top ruling party leaders, convened by Vajpayee, held at his residence Thursday afternoon, decided that the cabinetwould meet at 5 P.M. after which Vajpayee will hand over his resignation to the president.

Later, the Prime Minister will broadcast to the nation, the Prime Minister's Office sources said.

In results that amazed almost everyone here, the Congress, nation's oldest party, appeared set to become the single largest group in the fractured 545-seats Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament), a feat that was considered impossible when the polls began.

It has already won 130 of the 280 seats declared so far. Enditem

India's ruling coalition accepts defeat

India's ruling coalition accepteddefeat Thursday after a stunning resurgence that could bring the Congress party of Sonia Gandhi to power for the first time after 1996.

Pramod Mahajan, a key leader of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), almost conceded defeat following a dramatic reversal in the April-May ballot the ruling coalition had advanced in the hope of sweeping it.

But in results that surprised almost everyone, the Congress, the country's oldest party, appeared set to become the single largest group in the fractured 545-seat Lok Sabha, the lower houseof parliament, a feat that was considered impossible when the polls began.

A buoyed Congress, whose president Sonia Gandhi fought a grim battle in the face of charges that she was a foreigner unfit to rule India, sought the resignation of Vajpayee and began discussing the possibility of forming a government.

"Sonia Gandhi is already discussing the terms of the next government," Congress leader Ambika Soni said as congratulatory bouquets and messages came pouring in the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Wild celebrations erupted outside her highly secure residence in the heart of the Indian capital as hundreds gathered to celebrate by beating drums and distributing sweets.

Although only 187 results have been declared by 1 p.m. with theCongress alliance bagging 77 and the BJP coalition 54, it looked like the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would end up with not even 250 seats.

At least 272 seats are needed to form a stable government, and BJP leaders had even one month ago confidently asserted that theirtotal tally would cross 300.