After creating the election's most successful buzzword when he added it to his Twitter profile, Mr Modi has announced that he has removed the prefix "Chowkidar" from his Twitter handle.

"Chowkidar" means watchman and Mr Modi used it to tell people that he is their "watchman" - someone who looks out for them and serves them. He used it to address tropes like national security, anti-Pakistan rhetoric and corruption.

When he changed his handle to "Chowkidar Narendra Modi" - it prompted many other senior members of his cabinet to do the same.

BJP workers and supporters also rushed to follow suit. It proverbially broke the internet in India with memes, tweets and posts galore. There was even a ring tone.

We did ask some real "chowkidars" what they thought at the time...

India and Pakistan were at the brink of war in February after a Pakistan-based group carried out a deadly militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India retaliated with air strikes and an Indian pilot was captured - raising tensions further.

Mr Khan released the pilot as a gesture of peace. Things have since cooled down but the Kashmir situation remains a flashpoint that can escalate at any time.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi told reporters in Delhi that he accepted that the people of India had decided that Narendra Modi was the prime minister and took full responsibility for the defeat.

He refused to go into further detail about the Congress performance, saying he did not want to "colour the mandate" with a lengthy discussion on the outcome.

"The election finished today and results came today. I don't want to say more. I want to congratulate Mr Modi. My fight with Mr Modi is about ideology. I want to tell Congress workers - the ones who lost and the ones who won - that don't lose hope. We will continue to work hard and we will eventually win. There is no need to be scared," he said.

He also said that he did not regret his philosophy of "love" over "division".

"I had taken a vow that I will never reply any insults thrown at me, and I will continue to do that. That's just my philosophy. Love never loses. Today is not the day for me to go into the details of the mandate. Today a new PM has been elected and let's wish him luck."

Congress party president Rahul Gandhi has conceded the election to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at a news conference in Delhi, he also accepted that he had lost the seat his family has held for decades, Amethi in Uttar Pradesh - he had been the MP there since 2004.

Yogita Limaye
BBC News, Varanasi

On the streets of the ancient city of Varanasi in northern India, there are celebrations taking place in every locality.

First we passed a group of lawyers, waving BJP flags, shouting slogans and marching down the street. Then at one of the city’s main markets, traders were distributing sweets.

At the BJP headquarters in the city, party workers burst firecrackers and rubbed saffron coloured powder on each other

Although the election result has not formally been announced yet, Mr Modi is leading in this constituency by a margin of hundreds of thousands of votes - which means he’s certain of a victory.

It’s what most people here expected. One of the reasons this city was selected as a seat for Mr Modi was because it was a good fit. His party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pursues a Hindu nationalist agenda and Varanasi is considered almost a religious capital by Hindus.

The state it’s in, Uttar Pradesh, sends the most number of MPs to parliament. So any national party would want it’s biggest face to contest from here. And that’s why, even though Mr Modi belongs to the western state of Gujarat, it’s here that he stands for elections from.

The election result has had a dramatic effect on India’s stock market.

Earlier, when initial results began to point to a decisive victory for Mr Modi, it surged to an all-time high.

The two main stock market benchmarks - the Sensex and the NIFTY50 - reached record highs as investors cheered the prospect of the BJP and its allies getting a clear majority.

Mr Modi has long pitched himself as good for business, and the boost to the market indicates a strong endorsement for him from investors.

But the country’s economy does appear to be showing signs of a slowdown. Car and two-wheeler sales have fallen sharply in recent months and both categories are an important indicator of consumer demand.

This is likely to pose a major challenge for the new government. During his first five years in power, Mr Modi initiated some key economic reforms. Analysts expect him to build on these and introduce bolder policies in the coming years.

Read more: India's next government will have a growth problem

Image source, EPA

at the BJP's head office in Delhi.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to office, India will have continuity in foreign policy direction, says Neelam Deo, a former Indian ambassador and the director of Gateway House, a policy think tank.

Ms Deo said that India could expect an "enhancement" in initiatives started in his first term. This includes outreach to countries like the US, Japan and Australia in defence matters as well as building stronger relationships with neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Image source, Getty Images

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Lucknow

Image source, Getty Images

Yogi Adityanath, the saffron-robed monk chief minister of the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), arrived to a hero’s welcome at the BJP office in Lucknow.

Supporters mobbed his car at the entrance, beating drums as he walked the short distance to the makeshift stage to join other state party leaders.

Fans showered him with rose petals, set off fireworks and chanted “Modi-Yogi, Modi-Yogi”.

With a wide grin, he flashed victory signs at the crowd.

Even though the party seat count in the state has fallen from the 71 it won in 2014, the BJP performance in UP is being described as nothing short of brilliant, considering this time they were up against an alliance of two powerful regional parties.

Image source, Getty Images

The “Dream Girl” of millions of Indians in the 1970s and 80s, BJP candidate and former Bollywood actress Hema Malini, is leading by a big margin in Mathura in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The award winning actress, who starred in more than 150 films, also won from there in 2014.

Her resounding win comes despite the fact that her campaign this time made news for all the wrong reasons.

First, there were photos that showed her cutting hay with a sickle alongside farm women in an attempt to show how much she cared for the poor farm hands. But instead she invited ridicule for the incongruity of the images.

She then came under fire for tweeting a photo of herself on a tractor with air coolers blowing mist at her.

But her biggest gaffe may have been when she told a TV interviewer that she had “done a lot of good work” in her constituency, but didn’t “remember much”.

Scenes of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrating their decisive win are continuing to emerge.

At the party's headquarters in Delhi, members set off fireworks as the results were announced.

Elsewhere in the city, party workers sprinkled rose petals over a cheering crowd.

Image source, Reuters

The leader of India's main opposition Congress party has politics in his blood.

His father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as Indian prime ministers.

After a crushing defeat for Congress in the 2014 election, Mr Gandhi was all but written off. However he managed to re-energise the opposition this year with a combative campaign.

But today has not been a good day for him or his party. At present, Congress is leading in just 56 seats - this is a slight improvement on 2014 but will still be seen as a major blow.

And Mr Gandhi himself is in trouble. In the seat of Amethi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, he is currently trailing BJP candidate Smriti Irani by some 10,000 votes.Amethi is seen as a political bastion for the Gandhi family - and losing here would hurt.

Mr Gandhi won't be out of a seat in parliament though. The second seat he is contesting - Wayanad in Kerala - looks to be safely in the bag.

Image source, Getty Images

India's former cricket captain Gautam Gambhir is on course to win a seat in capital Delhi. Arvinder Singh Lovely from the main opposition Congress is trailing behind him.

The batsman announced his decision to join the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March - and has been in the news spotlight since.

With nearly nine million followers on Twitter, Mr Gambhir brings some considerable star power to the BJP.

A regular on social media, he isn’t shy about airing his political opinions either. In fact, his regular tweets on politics and nationalistic issues have set off many rumours in the past over his potential political career.

PM Modi has tweeted out congratulatory messages to two of his key regional allies - Jagan Mohan Reddy and Naveen Patnaik.

Mr Patnaik's party is leading in 14 of Orissa's 21 seats - and the BJP is leading in the rest of them.

Mr Reddy has won his own landslide in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh - his party is leading in 24 of the state's 25 seats.

Yogita Limaye
India correspondent, in Mr Modi's constituency Varanasi

Image source, EPA

Celebrations are being held at the offices of the BJP party all over India. Supporters have been distributing sweets, bursting firecrackers and beating drums.

For Mr Modi, this victory has been a resounding vote of confidence in his leadership.

Through the campaign he projected himself as the strong leader who could protect the country, and the man who put India’s economy on the fast track.

Even though his time in power was marked by an agrarian crisis, rising unemployment and deepening religious divides, his mass appeal and strong communication seems to have won over voters.

Many analysts also say the lack of a strong opposition may have contributed to this result.

Prime Minister Modi is expected to speak at the BJP head office in Delhi at 17:30 local time (12:00 GMT).

Earlier Mr Modi weighed in on Twitter, declaring "India wins yet again!"