NEW DELHI, March 11 —Prime Minister Indira Gandhi today won the parliamentary majority for which she had gambled in calling elections year ahead of schedule.

With one‐quarter of the returns still to come from the 10 days of polling that began March 1, Mrs. Gandhi's moderately left‐of‐center New Congress party had won 296 of the 394 seats reported. This was already 35 more than a majority in the 521‐member Lok Sabha, the crucial lower house of Parliament.

Landslide a Surprise

The only question now in India's fifth national election since independence is how big her majority will be—whether it will reach the two‐thirds, or 347, needed to pass constitutional amendments, which some of her promised antipoverty, programs may require.

It is even possible that she might surpass the record of 371 seats captured by her late father, Jawaharlal Nehru, in the 1957 election.

The size of Mrs. Gandhi's personal triumph, in which she has defeated opposition parties of both the left and right, surprised even her closest advisers, some of whom had privately expressed concern that she might fall short of a majority. At an outdoor news conference this afternoon on the grounds of her house, the 53year‐old Prime Minister said she was not the slightest bit surprised by the results. The people, she said, had voted primarily for the New Congress program “to lessen disparities” between rich and poor. But she acknowledged the personal nature of the victory by adding: “Many people made me a symbol of that program,”

“I can only say,” she added, “that I feel exceedingly humble when we see the faith and trust of the people, because there's no doubt that this faith increases our responsibility. The responsibility is always there, but with this kind of mandate, one feels all the more urged to do something quickly.”

However, when asked what her immediate priorities were and how swiftly she would implement them now that she had the parliamentary strength, she spoke in general terms about combating unemployment and rising prices, and appealed for patience.‘

“We'll try our best to do them as fast as possible,” said Mrs. Gandhi of the planned reforms. “But things can't change overnight.”

“It's a long and slow process,” she continued. “We can go only as fast as people themselves are willing to go. We can only help them to move, but the actual movement has to be theirs.”

She seemed in this comment to be acknowledging the major obstacle that confronts her despite her overwhelming mandate from the people — how to implement populist reforms with limited financial resources and with a party organization that remains even now a conservative apparatus rooted in the landed and wealthy.

Mrs. Gandhi was happy, and relaxed throughout the 40‐minute conference. She suggested with a puckish smile at one point that those press critics who had predicted her defeat should now “eat crow.”

She had to raise her voice to answer questions over the din of the drum‐beating victory processions that kept arriving to acclaim her and to place garlands of marigolds around her neck.

Other Parties in Disarray

Delhi was particularly exuberent, since her party captured all seven seats here, humiliating ,the Jan Sangh, a Hindu party that had held six, of them.

Mrs. Gandhi's triumph has left most of the other major parties in disarray.

For example, the Old. Congress — the conservative faction that broke with Mrs. Gandhi when the original Congress party split late in 1969 —had, won only 15 seats by late tonight. It held 63 in the last Parliament.

Swatantra, a right‐wing free enterprise party that had 35 seats in the old Parliament, so far has only five.

The pro‐Moscow Communist party of India, which had informal electoral agreements with the New Congress in some areas but was running against the party elsewhere, also appeared to be a loser, winning only 13 seats, compared with the 24 it had held.

Mrs. Gandhi's sweep was complete in almost all the 18 states — including those, like her home state of Uttar Pradesh, where the state government is controlled by opposition parties.

In Uttar Pradesh, with 82 of the 85 seats reported, her New Congress had taken 72 of them. In Mysore, another opposition stronghold, her party was leading in all 27 districts.

Opposition leaders were not taking their defeat very gracefully. Siddhavanahalli Nijalingappa, president of the Old Congress, accused Mrs. Gandhi of having fixed the elections with money, but said it was possible that the masses had been “swayed” by her promises.

Several opposition leaders were defeated by New Congress candidates in the first returns yesterday. Three leading figures of the Old Congress were added to the list of the defeated today — Mrs. Tarkesh wari Sinha, Sanjiva Reddy and Ram Subhag Singh.

A man of importance in India's past and once a close friend of Mrs. Gandhi, V. K. Krishna Menon, Defense Minister and United Nations Ambassador under Nehru, was declared elected today as an independent from Trivandrum in Kerala state.

Mrs. Gandhi dissolved Parliament last December and called new elections a year in advance because she was handicapped by a lack of a parliamentary majority after the Congress party split. She was dependent on the pro‐Moscow Communists and other parties to get bills through Parliament.

Asked at her news conference today if she was considering a coalition government or any arrangement with the Communists and others whose votes had kept her in power in the last Parliament, she said curtly: “No. This question has been asked thousands of times. No special relationship with them,”