NEW DELHI, May 16:
Narendra Modi rewrote history today storming to power at the Centre with a “triple century”, giving NDA an unexpected 336 seats in the Lok Sabha and BJP an absolute majority on its own for the first time in an election that decimated Congress to its lowest ever tally of 44.
Riding a strong anti-Congress wave, the 63-year-old Gujarat Chief Minister produced an astounding win for the BJP which attained a strong pan-India presence as never before.
NDA which comprises BJP and 24 smaller parties, scored a facile victory exceeding its own expectations as did the BJP which touched 282 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha to become the first party in 30 years to get a majority on its own after Rajiv Gandhi’s massive score of 417 seats in 1984.
Modi, who pledged to take everyone along in a victory speech, will arrive here tomorrow and is expected to be sworn in as India’s 16th Prime Minister sometime next week. Nominees of some of his allies will find a place in the Modi cabinet which will be dominated by BJP.
A strong showing in the Hindi heartland, consisting of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the BJP won as many as 190 out of 225 seats led to the rout of not only the Congress but regional players such as SP, BSP, JD(U) and RJD.
BJP also swept Modi’s home state of Gujarat and did exceedingly well in the crucial state of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP had 116 members on a national voteshare of 18.8 per cent while Congress had 206 members with a voteshare of 28.55 per cent. In the current elections, BJP got a voteshare of 31.4 per cent against Congress’ 19.5 per cent.
This time, Congress was virtually decimated as it bagged only 44 seats, its lowest tally ever. Party president Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility for the defeat.
Riding the Modi wave, BJP has come a long way from a party of two Lok Sabha members in 1984. Even at the height of the popularity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it could manage to get only 182 in 1998 and 1999, on the back of Ayodhya movement.
The Congress found it difficult to cross the double digit mark in most of the states as BJP swept Gujarat (26), Rajasthan (25), Delhi (7), Uttarakhand (5), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Goa (2).
BJP also nearly swept the crucial heartland state of Uttar Pradesh where it bagged 16 seats and was ahead in 55 of the total 80 seats. Its ally Apna Dal was leading in two seats. All the other seats were won by two political families.
Only regional parties AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and BJD were able to stymie the saffron march in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha, respectively.
AIADMK had won five seats and was leading in 32, while TMC had won 12 and was ahead in 22. BJD was set for a near sweep as it was leading in 19 of 21 seats.
Modi, who pledged to take everyone along in a victory speech, will arrive here tomorrow and is expected to be sworn in as India’s 16th Prime Minister sometime next week. Nominees of some of his allies will find a place in the Modi cabinet which will be dominated by BJP.
A strong showing in the Hindi heartland, consisting of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the BJP won as many as 190 out of 225 seats led to the rout of not only the Congress but regional players such as SP, BSP, JD(U) and RJD.
BJP also swept Modi’s home state of Gujarat and did exceedingly well in the crucial state of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP had 116 members on a national voteshare of 18.8 per cent while Congress had 206 members with a voteshare of 28.55 per cent. In the current elections, BJP got a voteshare of 31.4 per cent against Congress’ 19.5 per cent.
This time, Congress was virtually decimated as it bagged only 44 seats, its lowest tally ever. Party president Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility for the defeat.
Riding the Modi wave, BJP has come a long way from a party of two Lok Sabha members in 1984. Even at the height of the popularity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it could manage to get only 182 in 1998 and 1999, on the back of Ayodhya movement.
The Congress found it difficult to cross the double digit mark in most of the states as BJP swept Gujarat (26), Rajasthan (25), Delhi (7), Uttarakhand (5), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Goa (2).
BJP also nearly swept the crucial heartland State of Uttar Pradesh where it bagged 16 seats and was ahead in 55 of the total 80 seats. Its ally Apna Dal was leading in two seats. All the other seats were won by two political families.
Only regional parties AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and BJD were able to stymie the saffron march in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha, respectively.
AIADMK had won five seats and was leading in 32, while TMC had won 12 and was ahead in 22. BJD was set for a near sweep as it was leading in 19 of 21 seats.
Among the big wigs who won were Modi (from both Vadodara and Varanasi), Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), Rahul Gandhi (Amethi) and Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha).
Even as his party was creating records, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley was unlucky to suffer defeat at the hands of former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress candidate Amarinder Singh by a margin of 1,02,770 votes in Amritsar.
A bevy of heavyweights of Congress tasted defeat at the hustings. They included Union Ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khurshid, C P Joshi, Sachin Pilot, Pallam Raju besides Speaker Meira Kumar. RLD chief Ajit Singh and NCP leader Praful Patel also lost.
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate won by a huge margin of over 5,70,000 votes in Vadodara defeating Congress General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry whereas Sonia Gandhi retained her Rae Bareli seat by defeating BJP’s Ajay Agrawal by over 3.5 lakh votes.
Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj won the Vidisha seat by a big margin of more than 4.10 lakh votes. She defeated Congress’ Lakshman Singh in the contest.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath was successful in retaining his Chhindwara seat where he defeated his BJP rival in Madhya Pradesh by a margin of 1.16 lakh votes.
While other Cabinet Ministers who won their seats include Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily from Chikkballapur and Jyotiraditya Scindia won from Guna by a margin of 1.20 lakh votes.
The father-son duo of Ramvilas Paswan and Chirag Paswan won their seats in Hajipur and Jamui constituencies respectively in Bihar.
BJP’s rebel and former senior leader Jaswant Singh also lost from Barmer where he was defeated by Col Sonaram Chaudhary by over 80,000 votes.
Union Culture Minister Chandresh Katoch lost to her BJP rival Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by over four lakh votes from Jodhpur.
Meanwhile, the ten-year tenure of UPA-II will formally come to an end tomorrow after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls on President Pranab Mukherjee and submits resignation of his government.
“The Prime Minister sought time and the President has given time for 12:45 pm tomorrow,” Rashtrapati Bhavan Press Secretary Venu Rajamony said today.
Ahead of the meeting, official sources said that 81-year-old Singh will hold a customary meeting of the Union Cabinet.
Singh, who became the Prime Minister in 2004 and retained the post in 2009, will address the nation immediately after meeting the President.
Later, he would host tea for the members of his Council of Ministers after which the President will host a dinner for all of them.
Singh will soon vacate his official residence at 7, Race Course Raod and move into a bungalow at 3, Motilal Nehru Road.
“India has won! good days are ahead,” BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said today in his first reaction to the poll trends that indicate an impending BJP victory in the Lok Sabha polls.
“India has won! Bharat ki Vijay. Ache din ane wale hai (good days are ahead),” Modi, who is all set to become the Prime Minister, tweeted.
Modi later met his mother to seek her blessings.
He tweeted, “Sought blessings from my Mother”. In another tweet, he said, “Sharing a ‘Vijay Geet’ that captures the mood today.”
“I look forward to receiving your good wishes on the specially created Victory Wall,” he said, while sharing a wall where people have started giving their comments congratulating him for the phenomenal victory his party achieved under his charge.
Top BJP leaders including L K Advani and Rajnath Singh congratulated Modi for the party’s electoral victory.
Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi today accepted responsibility for the Congress’ worst-ever defeat in the Lok Sabha elections but made it clear the party will continue to fight for social harmony and issues of national interest.
Making a brief appearance before the media at the AICC headquarters here without taking any questions, the two congratulated the new government and wish them all the best.
Rahul, who was the anointed the campaign chief of the party in January, said BJP has got the mandate of the people. “I congratulate them… I wish them all the best,” he said.
He said the Congress has done badly in the elections and the party will need to think about it.
“As Congress Vice President, with all humility I take responsibility for this,” he said.
Sonia, who spoke later, “the people’s mandate is against us and I humbly accept the verdict… As Congress President, I take responsibility for it.”
Extending congratulations to the new government, she, however, said, “we hope that it will not compromise with the social unity and national interests. Congress will continue to fight for its principles and will not make any compromise,” she said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today telephoned Narendra Modi and congratulated him on BJP’s “impressive” victory in the just concluded general elections in India.
During his conversation, Sharif invited Modi to visit Pakistan.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif spoke to Narendra Modi this afternoon and offered his congratulations and good wishes on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s impressive victory in the just concluded general elections in India,” an official release from the Pakistan Government said.
Sharif said he “closely” followed the Lok Sabha elections in India.
On his part, Modi said during the campaign he emphasised the need for India and Pakistan to fight against poverty.
Sharif followed in the footsteps of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who had called and congratulated the Pakistan Premier when he won the polls last May.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan in 1999 on the invitation of Sharif and they signed the Lahore Declaration.
After a landslide victory, Narendra Modi today reached out to the opposition seeking cooperation of all parties and leaders in running the nation and dedicated himself to serve everyone equally.
In a gracious 45-minute victory speech at Vadodara, Modi said the Government does not belong to any particular party but to all the people of the country.
“For a Government, no one is a favourite, nor is anyone an alien,” he asserted to a cheering crowd of supporters whom he thanked for giving him a victory by 5.70 lakh votes.
Committing himself to running the country in the best spririt of the Constitution, Modi said, “my responsibility is to take everyone along in running the nation.”
“In a democracy, there are no enemies but only competitors. That competition ends with elections,” he said, adding his motto is “sabka sath, sabka vikas (with all, development for all).”
Congratulating winners in the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections in some states irrespective of parties, Modi said, “I extend my best wishes to MPs and MLAs of all parties. I hope that I will get their support in taking the country forward.”
Apparently referring to recrimination during the campaign, he said he would convert the “love” shown by his opponents into “pure love”.
“In a democracy, there are no enemies but only competitors. This competition is the beauty of our democracy,” he said, adding “bitterness” is over with the campaign.
“I want to assure the people of the country that for us it is our motto to carry along everyone however much they may oppose us. We will try to ensure that there will be nothing lacking on this front,” he said.
Modi underlined the significance of his victory by saying that it was the first time after Independence that a non-Congress party has got absolute majority on its own.
The 63-year-old leader also emphasised that for the first time the reins of power have come to those born after Independence.
Speaking amid chants of “Modi, Modi, Modi”, he said, “Whatever may be the scale of victory, it is our responsibility in Government to take everyone along. I need your blessings to achieve this humbly.”
Presenting himself as an “mazdoor number one”, he said nobody, even his rivals, questions the hardwork put in by him.
“For the next 60 months, you will not get a better ‘mazdoor’ (labourer),” the Prime Ministerial candidate said.
In an interactive style, the four-time Chief Minister told the crowd that till now he belonged to them, but they have now made him “national”.
“You have reposed trust in me, I repose trust in you… When I take one step, I trust all the 125 crore people will move with me,” he said.
Referring to the thumping victory with a margin of over 5.70 lakh votes, Modi said he expressed his gratitude to the electorate of this constituency.
“After filing my nomination, I could spend only 50 minutes with you but you gave me victory by 5.70 lakh margin. I have checked up and found that only P V Narasimha Rao had won by such a big margin and that was in a bye election. Mine has been recorded in a general election,” he said.
He promised to return the love showered on him by the electorate of this constituency by taking its development to new heights.
Modi, who also won from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, made an oblique reference to the denial of permission for his election rally in the temple town. “People of Banaras have put their stamp of approval on my silence.”
In an era of coalition politics, BJP has virtually done the impossible by wining a majority on its own, putting India under single party rule after 25 years.
The scale and significance of BJP’s victory could be gauged from the fact that since 1989, no single party could form government on its own.
The last 25 years were marked by various types of coalition Governments led by Congress, BJP as also United Front and a minority Government.
While emerging as the party with a majority of its own, the BJP has also managed to increase its vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
As per the latest data available, BJP’s vote share stood at 32.3 per cent of the total votes polled.
Its vote share in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections was 18.80 per cent of the total votes polled.
In 2009, Congress’ vote share stood at 28.55 per cent. Facing rout in many states, its vote share now stands at 20.1 per cent. According to latest trends, it has so far won 19 seats and is leading in 26.
The vote share figures will change by the time the last official result is announced.
The BSP, which had won 21 seats in 2009 general elections, had grabbed a vote share of 6.17 per cent. Though it has so far failed to open its account even in Uttar Pradesh, its vote share stands at 4.4 per cent.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which had won 19 Lok Sabha seats in 2009, had managed a vote share of 31.21 per cent.
In these elections, the party has so far won 10 seats and is leading in 24 others. Despite an impressive performance, its vote share has dipped to 4.1 per cent.
As he appeared to be all set to become the next Prime Minister, Narendra Modi today went to meet his mother to seek her blessings.
Modi, 63, bowed down before his mother Hiraba, who blessed him by putting both her hands on him, as the trends pointed to a clear win for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
“He has my blessings and he will lead the country towards development,” she said, when asked to comment on the counting trends.
The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate also sat with the family members and talked to his mother, who is staying with her other son Pankaj Modi in Gandhinagar.
He was also seen talking to the children of his brother’s family.
Hiraba also offered prayers this morning to make his son Prime Minister and poured holy water looking towards the sun, shortly before the initial trends of counting of votes poured.
Modi’s mother had also used her right to franchise from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, from where veteran BJP leader L K Advani is contesting.
Earlier, before filing his nomination papers from Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency, Modi had sought blessings of his mother.
Modi’s brother Prahlad Modi had yesterday said that he and his family were confident that his elder sibling, “a boy from an ordinary family”, was set to become the Prime Minister of the country.
Prahlad had also said that his family did not profess any claim over Modi now, as the people of India have their claim on him.
Modi had left his home at a very young age to join the RSS.
Congress’ electoral humiliation in the national capital continued as it was handed a crushing defeat today in the Lok Sabha polls with its seven MPs, including two Union Ministers, relegated to third position in their constituencies.
The party had suffered a severe drubbing in the assembly polls in December last year, winning a paltry eight seats in the 70-member Assembly after ruling the city for 15 consecutive years.
Like in assembly polls, the fledging Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second largest party in the Lok Sabha polls though it could not win a single seat.
The AAP had made a dream debut in the assembly polls winning 28 seats riding on anti-corruption plank and promise to provide clean governance.
In the assembly polls, the Congress had secured a vote share of 24.55 which came down to 15.1 per cent in the Lok Sabha election.
The BJP had secured 33.07 per cent vote share in the assembly polls which increased to 46.1 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls. The AAP’s vote share also increased to 32.9 per cent from 29.49 per cent in the assembly polls.
Following the shocking defeat in the assembly election, the Congress leadership had appointed young leader Arvind Singh Lovely as DPCC chief after J P Agarwal resigned from the post taking moral responsibility for the defeat.
After assuming office, Lovely tried to rejuvenate the party and had launched an aggressive campaign to regain the lost ground. However, the effort did not show tangible result as all the seven party candidates were defeated by huge margins.
Two Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath as well as AICC general secretary Ajay Maken could no put up a strong fight as all of them were relegated to third position besides poor performance by four other sitting MPs.
The margin of difference between the winning candidates and the Congress contestants were over two to three lakh votes in most of the constituencies.
In high-profile Chandni Chowk constituency, BJP’s Harsh Vardhan polled over 4.36 lakh votes while Congress’ Kapil Sibal got around 1.75 lakh votes.
Congress had won all the seven seats in 2009 Lok Sabha polls and was confident of retaining at least two seats.
Refusing to publicly talk about the defeat, a number of candidates, on condition of anonymity, blamed perception of corruption against Central Government and price rise as reason for their defeat.
“Failing to occupy even second position in any of the seven seats is really demoralising for the party,” said a senior Delhi Congress leader. (PTI)
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