Narendra Modi – to be sworn in Sunday as a three-term Prime Minister after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance pushed his BJP past the majority mark – mocked eternal rivals Congress for failing to win as many seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Congress, he declared, had yet again failed to cross the 100-seat mark and won fewer seats in three elections than the BJP had in one.
“What the Congress couldn’t win in three elections (the 2014, 2019, and 2024 polls) we won in one year. The Congress will not be able to cross the 100-mark in 100 years,” Mr Modi boasted.
The Congress, which led the INDIA opposition bloc in this election, finished with 99 wins from the 328 seats it contested. That was the party’s best result in 15 years; it won 44 in 2014 and 52 in 2019.
The last time the party boasted a triple-digit score was in 2009 when it won 206 seats and propelled former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the United Progressive Alliance to a second term.
READ | Congress May Hit 100 In Lok Sabha With Rebel’s Return
Mr Modi’s jibe, though, may be premature, for the Congress could still hit the 100-mark if Vishal Patil, a party rebel who contested and won from Maharashtra’s Sangli, re-joins the party.
In a post on X this morning, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Welcoming the support of elected MP from Sangli, Shri Vishal Patil to the Congress party”.
Narendra Modi made a pitch this morning for governance by consensus and coalition politics at a meeting of newly-elected MPs of the party-led National Democratic Alliance.