NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took sharp digs at the Congress as he set the ball rolling for his third stint after being elected as leader of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by allies who hold the keys to Modi 3.0. “The total number of seats won by the Congress in last three Lok Sabha elections is less than what the BJP has won in this election alone.Even after 10 years, the Congress could not manage to win 100 seats,” Modi said in his first speech to the NDA MPs.
The BJP, which fell short of majority this time, won 240 seats while the Congress bagged 99. In the 2014 and 2019 polls, the Congress won 44 and 52 Lok Sabha seats respectively taking the Congress total tally in three elections to 195, which is 45 less than BJP’s 2024 numbers.
PM Modi also slammed the Congress-led INDIA bloc over their posturing on Lok Sabha numbers and called the NDA the strongest and best-ever alliance. “The opposition parties, in spite of conceding defeat, were projecting it as a loss for the NDA and a victory for the INDIA bloc,” he said. “This shows their duplicity and eagerness to peddle false propaganda,” he added.
The Congress reacted sharply to PM Modi’s attacks and called him “one-third Prime Minister”. “Narendra, Naidu and Nitish are now one-third prime ministers,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said referring to Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, the two allies whose support BJP needs to form and run the government.
“He may have got seats and votes, but he has lost legitimacy. 2024 elections is a personal, moral and political defeat for Modi as none of his claims were endorsed by the voters. He spoke of “400-paar” but that did not happen. He spoke of “Modi ki guarantee” but people did not give BJP majority,” the Congress leader said.
“How does he explain the small margin of victory in Varanasi?” Ramesh said and claimed that the BJP parliamentary party is yet to elect him as the leader of their party.