Modi wave sweeps through India, washes away Congress

Vaishakh Krushnapaksha 2, Kaliyug Varsha 5116

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led BJP to a historic victory in the Lok Sabha elections with the saffron party looking set to win 272 seats, the majority required to form government at the Centre. The National Democratic Alliance has already won 273 seats and was leading in 63 constituencies.

The results have reduced the ruling Congress party to its worst ever performance. Congress president Sonia Gandhi briefly appeared before the media and conceded defeat. “The mandate is clearly against us. I accept responsibility for this defeat,” she said. The UPA chairperson didn’t take any question from mediapersons.

Riding on the anti-incumbency and Modi factor, BJP made a clean sweep in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal and Goa accounting for 69 seats.

BJP made a remarkable comeback in Uttar Pradesh where the party is poised to win 67 seats.

BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has won from Vadodara and Varanasi. Reacting to this historic result, Modi said that India has won.

Congress vice-president and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi is leading by 54,028 votes over his nearest rival Smriti Irani of BJP after the 10th round of counting.

Lok Sabha elections 2014 witnessed the highest-ever turnout with 66.38 per cent of an estimated 814 million voters exercising their franchise — the highest ever in the history of general elections.

During the high decibel campaign marked by vitriolic accusations, Modi constantly targeted Rahul as ‘shehzada’ and the UPA dispensation as the ‘mother-son’ government besides going after Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra over alleged land deals. He also hurled barbs at the UPA government, saying it represented the ‘ABCD’ of corruption, referring to Adarsh, Bofors and Coal scams. He also took a ‘RSVP’ jibe at the Nehru-Gandhi family, saying R stood for Rahul, S for Sonia, V for Vadra and P for Priyanka. He often ridiculed his rival parties for having a one-point “Stop Modi” agenda.

The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate also had his share of criticism with several leaders taking him on in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. The Trinammol Congress in West Bengal called Modi the “butcher” of Gujarat after he escalated his attack against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying there is no “poribartan” in the eastern state.

Sonia and Rahul put Modi in the crosshairs over alleged favours given to the Adani group in land deals and claimed that he favoured only select industrialists. Rahul hurled “balloon” and “toffee model” barbs at the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate.

The Congress also attacked Modi for constantly harping on Gujarat model of development, claiming there has been no development at all in the western state during his rule. Priyanka was also brought into the campaign by the Congress towards the later stages and managed to energise the cadres in UP. But she confined her campaign to Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Source : Indian Express