With the BJP falling behind the majority mark and its poll pitch of ‘400 ke par’, opposition INDIA bloc said on Tuesday that the 2024 Lok Sabha election mandate is against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he should own up the political and moral responsibility and step aside from another stint in power.
The parliamentary poll results and trends suggested that the NDA won and was leading in 290 seats, which is well past the majority mark of 272 needed in the Lok Sabha to form the government third time in a row at the Centre. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, however, stated at a press conference on Thursday evening, that the INDIA bloc, leading and won 231, will take a call during its meeting on Wednesday whether to sit in opposition or stake claim for government formation.
“The main thing this election has said, the country has clearly said, is that we don’t want Narendra Modi, and Amit Shah.. they don’t like Modi and Shah to be running this country,” Rahul Gandhi, who won from both the seats of Wayanad in Kerala and Raebareli in UP, told reporters at a press conference held at AICC headquarters. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh also shared the dais with Rahul in the press meet.
He also stated, “We fought this election not just against BJP but also the institutions, the governance structure of the country, the intelligence agencies, CBI and ED, judiciary because all these institutions were captured by Amit Shah & Narendra Modi ji...”
Sources in the Congress said, vulnerability of NDA partner Janata Dal United’s Nitish Kumar, who was part of the INDIA bloc before taking a U-turn ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to align with the BJP to remain Chief Minister of Bihar, is an option that could be explored if they decide to pitch to form the government. Though officially Congress did not state anything, the buzz was that it did reach out to the JDU and also to the TDP.
“We will hold a meeting with our alliance partners tomorrow. These questions will be raised and answered there. We won’t make any statements without asking our alliance partners,” Gandhi said to a query if his party and its allies will approach others that are part of the NDA to try and form a government.
As per the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) trends of results in this elections, Congress showed signs of revival in the Hindi heartland, especially in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, and gained in the south, pushing the prospects of the opposition by winning and staying ahead in 99 seats, which is almost the double of its tally of 52 secured in the 2019 elections. Congress also managed to take back Amethi from the BJP after the family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma defeated union minister Smriti Irani, Rahul retained his mother Sonia Gandhi’s Raebareli constituency.
Rahul Gandhi, however, said that he has not decided which of the two seats he won will retain. The Congress’ polling percentage also went up to 21.34 percent this time despite it contested less number of seats in comparison to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where its polling percentage was 19.49.
The decision of INDIA bloc to contest polls together in most of the states seemed to pay off since Samajwadi Party (SP) too came up with the surprise performance benefiting from putting up good candidates that represented OBCs and other backward castes as it was leading and had won 37 of 80 seats in UP. In the previous polls, Congress had won the lone seat of Raebareli while SP had cornered five parliamentary segments.