Leading UK-based NRIs, including the Caparo Group head Lord Swraj Paul, feel that the BJP's victory in Gujarat Assembly polls is due to good governance provided by the government.

Lord Paul said, "It is a victory for the people of Gujarat and democracy. People prefer good governance and they have voted for good governance."

Another leading NRI entrepreneur, Sir Gulam Noon, chief of the multi-million pound  Indian takeaway Noon Products, said, "Today, people are worried about development, commerce and prosperity and Narendra Modi [Images] has done well in these and my congratulations to him."

Sir Noon said, "Roots of democracy and secularism in India are very deep and recent elections have shown that personal attacks on individuals never pay."

"Modi did a brilliant job in capturing the imagination of the people, focusing on development which the Congress failed to do."

Sir Noon, an outspoken person, said people should forget the past and look at the future, in an obvious reference to the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

"I tell my fellow Muslims that you have to forgive and forget and look at the future", Noon said.

"My advise to the Muslim community is please educate your children," he said.

About the Congress, he said, "The leaders of Congress should start listening to young people.  The older people's sell-by date is over."

C B Patel, Chair of the Patrons of the Council of Hindu Forum of Britain, said, 'What Modi has achieved is credit worthy despite so many adverse conditions created both from the opposition parties and from internal dissension within the party."

"The greatest contribution to the success of Modi's victory appears to have been made by Congress President Sonia Gandhi [Images] and others in the party by levelling charges against him," he said.

Praveen Amin, chief of the National Congress of Gujarati Associations in the UK, representing 98 Gujarati organizations, hoped Modi with a "thumping confidence vote from the electorate will work towards building an inclusive society in Gujarat, work for the development of all sections and not one  particular section".

Shamsuddin Agha, President of the Indian Muslim Federation in the UK said Modi should assuage the feelings of Muslims.

"Obviously our members are deeply hurt. But now they acknowledge that they have to live and work in Gujarat and they want to look ahead," he said.