LS election results: Modi dedicates party’s massive victory to nationalism

New Delhi: Five years after the Modi tsunami decimated the Opposition, the Congress in particular, it returned with a greater force on Thursday to finish off whatever remained of the adversary.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and magic virtually turned India into a “lotus garden” with the final tally by Thursday evening coming close to the NDA’s “Mission 350”.

By continuing to lead in 345 seats, the BJP-led NDA is set to improve its 2014 tally by nine Lok Sabha berths.

While the BJP on its own had bagged 282 seats in 2014, it is now all set to cross the 300 mark and the swearing-in-ceremony is expected to be held with much pomp and show by the end of the week.

With Thursday’s stupendous electoral triumph, Mr Modi emerged as the first Indian Prime Minister since Indira Gandhi to pull off an election on his own and win a second consecutive majority.

Mr Modi, in his victory speech at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, said, “This is a victory of Hindustan… this is a victory of people.” He also dedicated his victory to “nationalism.”

The force of the Modi tornado was such that Congress scion and party president Rahul Gandhi lost the home turf Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh, which was being represented by the Nehru-Gandhi family for decades.

On Thursday, he became the first Gandhi to lose from Amethi, after Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. By defeating Rahul Gandhi, who has been winning the seat since 2004, the BJP’s Smriti Irani has emerged as a giant killer.

Following his defeat, the signal was loud and clear — the nation had rejected Rahul Gandhi’s slogan chowkidar chor hai, and instead reposed its faith in “chowkidar Narendra Modi” and his band of “chowkidars.”

The Congress, which had been confined to a meagre 44 seats in 2014, could manage to improve its tally by only seven seats.

Speaking after the debacle, Mr Gandhi, who has been credited with keeping the Congress’ election campaign comparatively clean as poll discourse touched a new low, “congratulated” Mr Modi, Smriti Irani and said that his was a fight of “ideology” which will continue, but the people of the country has chosen “Narendra Modi to be their leader” and he respected their mandate.

Mr Gandhi was not the only Congress heavyweight who faced defeat on Thursday. Stunning political pundits, Pragya Thakur, who is out on bail and facing trial in the Samjahuta train blast case, trounced Congress’ Digvijay Singh from Bhopal and K.P. Yadav beat the other top Congress leader, Jyotiraditya Scinida, from Guna Lok Sabha constituency.

The Modi wave virtually caused a political earthquake in West Bengal where the party hiked up its tally from two Lok Sabha seats to 18.

The Bengal result has pushed the mercurial state Chief Minister and Trinamul chief, Mamata Banerjee, into a blind corner.