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PMIn the final hours of campaigning for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in which 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories will vote Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday invoked Lord Ram on the occasion of Ram Navami, stepped up his attack on the Opposition INDIA bloc and said while he went to the people with hope in 2014, trust in 2019, he was now approaching them with guarantee for a third straight term in office.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, targeted Modi and called this election an “ideological” battle, claiming that the BJP and RSS were “trying to end the Constitution and the democratic system of the country”. He claimed the BJP would not cross the 150 mark in the polls and that there was a strong undercurrent in favour of the INDIA bloc.
The high-decibel campaign for the first phase — it has the maximum seats in the seven-phase election — drew to a close Wednesday. Tamil Nadu (39 seats) and Uttarakhand (5 seats) are two states where voting will be completed Friday. The first phase also includes 12 seats in Rajasthan, 8 in UP, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 each in Assam and Maharashtra, 4 of Bihar, 3 of West Bengal, 2 each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and 1 seat each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will also be held Friday.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as many as 49 of the 102 seats, including 38 alone in Tamil Nadu, were won by parties which are now in the INDIA bloc. The BJP and allies, including parties in the North-East, had won 48 seats. Three were won by the BSP and one each by the AIADMK and the undivided Shiv Sena.
On Wednesday, addressing a public meeting in Agartala in Tripura where the BJP is up against a coalition of Congress and the CPM, Modi said the two parties have come together to save their “loot ki dukan”.
Slamming the Congress, he said the party while in power had adopted the “Loot” East policy while the BJP had turned it into the Act East policy. The Congress, he said, had turned the region into an “adda of bhrashtachar” (hub of corruption) and the Communists spoiled the state’s prospects.
Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, the Congress and the CPM, he said, “The Congress Yuvraj, who is critical of the use of investigative agencies, is now demanding the arrest of Kerala Chief Minister on corruption charges. No corrupt person will be spared.”
Modi invoked Lord Ram at Agartala and at another rally in Nalbari in Assam. Taking a break at noon in the middle of his address in Nalbari, he asked the gathering to switch on the flashlight of their mobile phones saying, “Prabhu Ram ka Surya Tilak ho raha hai, hum bhi phone se Prabhu Ram ko pranam kar rahe hain.” In Agartala, he said he is visiting the North-East, where the Sun rises first in the country, on Ram Navami when Ram Lalla is being adorned with the Surya Tilak at the Ram temple in Ayodhya after having to “live in tents” for long.
“After my Nalbari rally, I watched the Surya Tilak on Ram Lalla. Like crores of Indians, this is a very emotional moment for me. The grand Ram Navami in Ayodhya is historic,” he said on X, also posting two photographs of him watching the ceremony on a tablet. “May this Surya Tilak bring energy to our lives and may it inspire our nation to scale new heights of glory,” he said.
In Nalbari, Modi said he had gone to the people in 2014 with hope, in 2019 with the message of trust and was now seeking a mandate again with ‘Modi ki Guarantee’.
The BJP, he said, is a party which works with the mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. Maintaining that his government does not discriminate when it comes to implementation of schemes, he said, “In the next five years, 2 crore more new houses will be built and everyone will get them without discrimination. In the next five years, you will continue to get free ration… You tell me, have any of you faced discrimination in NDA schemes?”
Rahul Gandhi, addressing a joint press conference with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, slammed the Prime Minister over the electoral bond scheme, calling it the “world’s biggest extortion scheme” and Modi the “champion of corruption”.
“This election is an ideological one. On the one hand, there is the RSS and the BJP who are trying to end the Constitution and the democratic system of the country. And on the other hand is the INDIA bloc which is protecting and defending the Constitution and the democratic system,” he said.
Gandhi said there are big issues such as unemployment and price rise, but the BJP is engaged in diverting attention from them. “Sometimes the PM goes underwater in the ocean and sometimes he is on a seaplane but does not talk about issues,” he said.
Asked how many seats he expects the Congress-SP alliance to win, Gandhi said he does not want to predict the number of seats but can definitely say that the coalition will do very well in Uttar Pradesh. On the overall scenario, he said, “15-20 days ago, it seemed that the BJP would go up to 180 seats. Now it seems that it will go up to 150 seats only. We are getting reports from every state that our position is getting stronger and there is an undercurrent (in favour of the INDIA bloc).”
Yadav said that “winds of change” are blowing from western Uttar Pradesh and there will be an INDIA bloc “clean sweep” from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur (western UP to eastern UP).
Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh said, “PM Modi claims he came to the people in 2014 with hope, in 2019 with trust, and in 2024 with his guarantees. In reality, he has dashed the hopes of 2014, betrayed the people’s trust since 2019, and his exit is now guaranteed in 2024.”
