Modi Wave Sweeps Country Again, BJP Betters Its 2014 Tally

In contrast, the Congress was left reeling with just 27 definite wins and a lead in 24 seats, said partial results.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a humongous win in Lok Sabha elections 2019. The partial vote count released by the Election Commission showed that BJP had won on 202 seats and was leading on 101. This means it will not only better its own 2014 performance but it will also cross the 300-seat mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

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With this, PM Modi also becomes the country’s first non-Congress leader to retain power with full majority. He is also the third Prime Minister, after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, to achieve that feat.

The Modi wave swept everything in its way; Congress President Rahul Gandhi lost his traditional seat of Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani.

At a victory celebration followed by a massive procession, the PM promised the nation that he may make mistakes but he would never do anything with ill-intention. He promised to devote every moment of his to the welfare of the nation.

Reaching out to political rivals, PM Modi said, “We have to move ahead. We have to take everyone with us, even our opponents. We have to work for the benefit of the country.”

Thanking the public for the overwhelming mandate, he said, “You have filled this fakir’s bag with a lot of hope. All your hopes, dreams, ambitions are dependent on it.”

With the help of its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, the BJP could end up with 344 seats in its kitty.

In contrast, the Congress was left reeling with just 39 definite wins and a lead in 13 seats, said partial results. Such results also raised questions on Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. At a press conference, he refused to address the issue and insisted his party would meet on Friday to discuss the course of action.

“The people of India have decided that Narendra Modi will be the PM again and I fully respect it,” he said.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine had posed a stiff challenge, the BJP is poised to win 62 of the 80 seats. This is just marginally poorer than the 2014 results but definitely better than the 30-40 seats exit polls had forecast.

Meanwhile, the Modi wave swept through West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Only Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh appeared untouched. Even in Telangana, the BJP is expected to win four seats, while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti will get nine.

Andhra Pradesh threw up a shock for the Telugu Desam Party in the Assembly polls by electing Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP instead.

Interestingly, the Modi wave worked its magic even in states where the Congress had won in the recent Assembly elections: 28 out of 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 24 of 25 in Rajasthan and nine out of 11 in Chhattisgarh. In Karnataka, where the ruling JD(S)-Congress has repeatedly accused the saffron party of poaching, the party won 25 out of 28 seats.

The party, along with its allies, has done exceedingly well in Bihar and has much to pat its back in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Delhi. The BJP also made huge gains in Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana where it has struggled to find a foothold.

In Odisha, the saffron party led in eight of the 21 seats, up from one last time. In West Bengal, it was expected to win 18 seats, up from two in 2014. In Telangana, it was set to win four.

The Congress hasn’t won even a single seat in 13 states. Among its heavyweights losing is Mallikarjun Kharge who lost his Kalburgi seat in Karnataka, Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh.

In Tamil Nadu, Congress ally DMK was ahead in 20 seats while in Kerala, the Congress-led UDF was ahead in 19 out of 20 seats.

The voting was staggered between April 11 and May 19 in which around 67 per cent of the nearly 900 million eligible people exercised their franchise to elect 542 members of the Lok Sabha from a total of 8,049 contestants.