Both Modi, Oppn claim victory after five rounds
PM Modi claims Opposition is "defeated and destroyed" after 5 phases of elections. Accuses Congress leaders of being against reservations. More phases to go.
In rallies in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Opposition is completely “defeated and destroyed” after five phases of polling for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, that he has no successor, and accused top Congress leaders, starting from the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, of being against “reservations”.
The sixth and seventh phases of polling are scheduled for May 25 and June 1, for 58 and 57 seats, respectively, but Modi said that the Opposition is already “defeated” — a comment that came on a day when Union home minister Amit Shah said the Bharatiya Janata Party has already won 310 seats (of the 429 that have gone to the polls).
To be sure, that wasn’t the only talk of numbers on Tuesday: Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the INDIA bloc of opposition parties would win more than 300 seats, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said there was an undercurrent in favour of the bloc.
In Maharajganj, Modi said the Opposition could not tolerate the fact that people were supporting him. “During the first phase poll, the Opposition felt dejected (passt) and following subsequent rejections, it was decimated (dhwast) by fourth phases and now after the conclusion of fifth phase, they are completely defeated and destroyed (paraasth).”
He also emphasised his government’s clean record, targeting the Opposition for corruption, and for dynastic politics. He said he had neither inheritance nor heirs, and that all people were his heirs.
“They are all communal, casteist and dynastic...,” he said.
In East Champaran, Modi also targeted the Opposition for the narrative it has sought to build, that the BJP is in pursuit of an absolute majority so that it can amend the Constitution, removing the benefits of reservation for backward castes and classes.
“Had it not been for Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Nehru would have never agreed to quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs. Nehru made his views clear on the issue in letters he wrote to the then chief ministers in the country.”
“This has been the Congress’s trait under successive prime ministers. Be it, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi, they all opposed reservations. SCs, STs and OBCs have never got respect from the Congress,” he added.
Referring to Champaran as Mahatma Gandhi’s “karma bhoomi” — it is where Gandhi launched his first satyagraha — Modi said the Congress “betrayed his ideals upon coming to power and devoted itself to promoting the interests of one family”.
Elections have been completed in 24 of India’s 36 states and Union territories. Just 115 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats remain for the last two phases on May 26 and June 1. Both the ruling party and the Opposition have claimed victory in the five rounds of polling that have finished.
Later in the day, Modi addressed a rally in Prayagraj and called the Opposition “anti-development”, adding that both the Congress and its ally Samajwadi Party competed in the appeasement of vote banks.
“What used to happen (at Kumbh) during the time of SP-Congress? There used to be stampedes in the crowd, people had to die, there was anarchy everywhere... Because they were more concerned about their vote bank than the Kumbh,” he said.
“They (SP and Congress) were afraid if they were seen doing something extra for Kumbh, their vote bank might feel bad. A competition of appeasement used to take place between the SP and Congress,” Modi said, addressing a rally in the region known for the Kumbh Mela and the Triveni Sangam.
“This election of 2024 will decide the direction in which the Triveni of India’s future will flow,” he added. Triveni is the confluence of three rivers considered sacred in Hinduism — the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Saraswati.
Modi alleged that INDIA bloc members are diametrically opposed to good governance and “our faith”.
“These people boycotted the Ram temple and called the ‘sanatan’ (dharma) dengue and malaria; would they allow next year’s Kumbh to be organised properly?” he asked.
In Varanasi, Modi apparently referred to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “boys will be boys” remark from 2014, and slammed the regional party over the law-and-order situation when it was in power in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a women’s conference in his home constituency, Modi said that there was “jungle raj” during the SP rule in Uttar Pradesh and women found it difficult to step out of their homes.
“The SP people used to shamelessly say boys make mistakes,” Modi said in an apparent reference to Yadav’s controversial remark made a decade ago while opposing capital punishment for rape.
“Let SP’s boys make a mistake now,” Modi said, adding that the Yogi Adityanath government will deal with them in a manner that they would not have imagined
Opposing death penalty for rape, Mulayam Singh in 2014 said, “Galtiyan kabhi-kabhi ho jaati hain. Ladke to ladke hi rahenge. (Mistakes do sometimes happen. Boys will remain boys).”
The PM also said that the Congress and SP always neglected the welfare of women but under the BJP government, women are at the centre of the country’s success story.
Terming the INDIA bloc members “anti-women”, Modi said that had the Congress been in power, kitchen expenses in every household would have gone up two to three times. He said the BJP government helped them improve their lives with the help of various schemes.“There might not have been many discussions on the topic, but this is a big factor in the country’s success story,” he said.
The women’s vote is considered among the key factors in the ongoing polls, and almost every party is hoping to secure a chunk of this vote base.