‘Nation Saying Ab Ki Baar…’: Modi Predicts 400+ Seats for NDA; Says ‘Jo Loota Hai...’

In a show of supreme confidence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the Lok Sabha that he believes that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will cross the mark of 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, while the National Democratic Alliance would cross the 400-seat mark. This could be a landslide victory if Modi’s prediction comes true.

Modi said the people’s mood is such, and the BJP’s campaign song for 2024 has also given the message of ‘Tabhi toh sab Modi ko chunte hain’ (the only choice for the people is Modi). The PM, in his speech in the Lok Sabha, also predicted the Congress’s dwindling fortunes in the next elections and said they would be soon seen in the ‘visitor’s gallery’ of Parliament and they had “vowed” to stay in the opposition for many years to come. This came after Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee said two days ago that the Congress would not get even 40 seats in the upcoming elections.

The PM referred to the strains in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and how the parties in the opposition camp did not trust each other. “Alliance ka alignment bigad gaya hai,” the PM said, hinting at Nitish Kumar walking out of the opposition camp and into the NDA, and Banerjee and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal’s party saying no to an alliance in Punjab. Modi also said that many in the Congress had lost the will to fight the upcoming election and some of their Lok Sabha MPs wanted to take the Rajya Sabha route. The BJP, on the other hand, could make some of their outgoing Rajya Sabha MPs contest the Lok Sabha elections.

THE MODI FACTOR

Leaders of the BJP have been confident that they will cross the 2019 mark of 303 seats for the BJP, which was also 21 seats up from 2014. Modi’s target of 370 seats for the BJP is a big one, and underlines the BJP’s confidence that it will retain its stronghold states in the heartland and make new forays in the states in the south. Modi has been urging his party leaders to impress upon the electorate the benefits of a strong and stable government and how that is the reason that the Modi government could deliver big-ticket measures like the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K and the construction of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Modi government has Hindutva, nationalism and delivery of benefits to the poor, like free ration, as its major planks.

The PM also feels that his government has delivered on its major promises like 370 abrogation and Ram Temple and is hence on an even stronger footing that it was in 2019 and 2014. While in 2014, Narendra Modi has stormed to power on the back of a strong campaign on anti-corruption against the UPA government, the 2019 saw a nationalistic pitch post the surgical strikes in Pakistan by Indian security forces. The PM feels that with the country in an upbeat mood on the front of the economy, successes like the G-20 Presidency and Chandrayaan-3, and the country’s growing stature abroad – people are in no mood to give anyone else other than him as the charge of India.

A non-populist interim budget was also an indicator of the Modi government’s confidence that a booming economy with low inflation is a sure recipe for success in the upcoming elections. Modi’s swipe at Rahul Gandhi without naming him, as a product that has been failing despite repeated launches, also is a message to the Congress that people will never prefer Rahul over Modi. His pitch is of a strong and stable government amidst two major wars in the world and India surviving the pandemic.