IndiaPM Manmohan Singh has rejected speculation about early general elections after a key ally left the government, saying his administration remained stable.
One of Gowda's first actions as PM was to offer an olive branch to India's insurgency-torn northeastern states, which symbolize another of the nation's many festering divides.
As exit polls had indicated, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance won a comfortable majority in India's parliamentary elections.