2014 Lok Sabha election results: Modi wave submerges Congress; NDA bags 336 Lok Sabha berths
New Delhi: The nation virtually turned saffron on Friday as the BJP rode a Modi wave to a thundering victory. Within two hours after counting of votes began, it became clear the BJP-led NDA would return to power at the Centre.
Leading the party at the hustings, BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi single-handedly crafted a historic win for the party, which could end up with an all-time high of 282 seats, with the NDA bagging 336 Lok Sabha berths. A decimated UPA managed to lead only in 59 seats, of which the Congress was hoping to get 44 Lok Sabha berths - its worst-ever electoral performance.
The rout is so severe that the Congress on its own may not be able to muster even the 10 per cent (of the Lok Sabha) required for its leader to get the status of Leader of the Opposition.
(Read: Narendra Modi calls himself 'mazdoor number one')
"India has won, good days are coming," Mr Modi said in his victory speech in Vadodara, Gujarat. For the BJP, it was not just a wave, but a "Modi tsunamo". Political pundits gasped at the stupendous scale of the saffron victory. After 1984, when the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress won over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, this is the first time that a single party will enjoy a simple majority in the Lower House of Parliament.
At least for now, Mr Modi has crafted the end of India’s coalition politics. The contentious slogan "Ab ki bar Modi Sarkar (This time a Modi government)" has finally turned into reality. While Mr Modi led the charge, his close aide Amit Shah planned the party’s spectacular triumph in Uttar Pradesh, the gateway to Delhi. Of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha berths, the BJP won 71 seats, and will well surpass its highest tally so far of 58 seats in the state in 1998.
The party also managed to increase its voteshare, and going by the latest available data, its voteshare stood at 42.3 per cent of total votes polled.
The BJP’s rainbow coalition of 25 parties virtually matched the saffron performance. Among these, the TDP was leading in 16 of 42 seats in united Andhra Pradesh, and is set to form the state government in Seemandhra.
Speaking in Vadodara, Mr Modi said: "Good days are coming, and from today for the next five years the journey has started." Saying development will be his only agenda, he reminded the nation that "for the first time, the country will be run by one who was born after Independence". While Mr Modi was born on September 17, 1950, Rajiv Gandhi was born on August 20, 1944.
"This isn’t a time to die for your country, it’s a time to live for good governance, Mr Modi said."With all and development for all, will be my government’s motto, and not an empty slogan. I hope I will get cooperation from all political parties and leaders in running the nation," he said. Describing himself as "Mazdoor No. 1", he said: "For the next 60 months, you will not get a better ‘mazdoor’ (labourer)."
(Read: Narendra Modi sounds end of coalition era)
Mr Modi added: "In a democracy, there are no enemies, but only competitors. This competition is the beauty of our democracy," he said, adding that the "bitterness" was 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 there will be nothing lacking on this front," he added.
Mr 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: "The people of Benaras have put their stamp of approval on my silence."
The saffron celebrations were marred a little by the defeat of master strategist Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, where he was defeated by the Congress’ Amarinder Singh by a margin of over 80,000 votes. Taking the defeat in his stride, Mr Jaitley said: "I don’t blame anyone for selecting Amritsar to fight from." Being a Rajya Sabha member,
Mr Jaitley is still in the reckoning for either the finance or external affairs portfolio. Mr Modi, who contested from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in UP, won both seats. In Vadodara he won by 5.7 lakh votes, narrowly missing the record margin that belongs to the CPI(M)’s Anil Basu, who had won from Arambagh in West Bengal in 2004 by a margin of 5,92,502 votes. In Varanasi, despite reports of Muslim votes being consolidated in favour of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Modi won by a margin of over three lakhs.
The Congress’ Nehru-Gandhi was dealt a body blow by India’s voters. Despite the high-pitched aggressive campaign against Mr Modi by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the family bastion of Amethi, her brother Rahul, who won in 2009 by a staggering 3.7 lakhs votes, managed to retain his seat this time against the BJP’s Smriti Irani by a little over one lakh votes.
His victory margin plunged by nearly 2.6 lakh votes. Speaking at a crowded press conference, both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi shared responsibility for the crushing defeat. After Rahul said: "As vice-president of the party I am responsible for what happened," mother Sonia stepped in to say: "As party president I take the responsibility." Mother and son then left without taking any questions from the media.
The Congress failed to open its account in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarkahand, Tamil Nadu and Goa. After its disastrous performance in Assam, Maharashtra and Karnataka, pressure is mounting on Congress CMs Prithviraj Chavan (Maharashtra) and Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) to resign. Assam CM Tarun Gogoi reportedly has already offered to quit.
It was, however, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa and BJD boss Naveen Patnaik who managed to repulse Mr Modi’s brutal charge. In Tamil Nadu the AIADMK won 36 out of the state’s 39 seats. In West Bengal, the TMC won 34 out of 42 seats and in Odisha the BJD had won 16 out of 21 seats. The AIADMK is likely to emerge as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha, and the Trinamul Congress fourth.
The leaders of "Mandal" politics (Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and Lalu Prasad Yadav) were reduced to nothing in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In UP, while the BJP led in 71 out of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha berths, the SP was leading in only seven and Congress in three. Dalit queen Mayawati and her BSP failed to even open its account. Stunning political pundits even within the BJP, Mr Modi broke into dalit votes that had always been strongly behind Mayawati.
It was clear that the polarisation of the Hindu-Muslim votebank was total. Mr Modi moreover emerged as a "dream merchant" whose development plank and Gujarat model tore to shreds the caste politics of UP and Bihar.
In Bihar, proving wrong reports of a Muslim-Yadav consolidation in favour of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, the BJP-LJP combine had won 27 of the state’s 40 seats, leaving only four seats for the RJD. If other Mandal leaders fell like ninepins, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan struck jackpot by latching on to the Modi bandwagon, and the JD(U) of Nitish Kumar paid a price for snapping its ties with the BJP, and won only two seats. In Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the saffron party’s victory was complete. The BJP bagged all seven seats in Delhi, all 26 in Gujarat, all 25 in Rajasthan, all five in Uttarakhand and both seats in Goa.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, which had stormed into the national political scenario by winning 28 of 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly polls, made its Lok Sabha debut by winning four seats in Punjab. The party had fielded 426 candidates. But for Mr Kejriwal, who lost from Varanasi to Mr Modi,this was a "good start".
What was spectacular was that riding on the Modi wave, the BJP won 17 of 28 seats in Karnataka. The saffron force virtually made a gaping hole in the traditional Congress bastion in Assam as it won seven of the state’s 14 seats. In West Bengal, the BJP has won two seats - Darjeeling and Asansol.
In Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena-Republican Party combine won 41 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha berths. In Haryana, out of 10 seats, the BJP-led NDA is won seven seats. The saffron party also swept states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
