Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mentioned election data to assert that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the public’s preferred choice for governance. He cited data to show that the BJP’s record of winning assembly elections while in power is much better than the Congress.
Speaking at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in Delhi, he hailed the party’s “teamwork” for its stellar victory in three of four states in the recent elections. PM Modi said that besides the BJP’s win in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the party has grown in strength in Mizoram and Telangana.
“I’m a small karyakarta (worker). People think that I am part of their family. Do not add adjectives before and after my name like ‘Shree’, ‘Adarniya’ (respected), and ‘Ji’. People think of me as ‘Modi’,” the Prime Minister said during the meeting.
PM Modi asked party MPs not to use such adjectives while using his name in their slogans.
PM Modi noted that the BJP went into polls 39 times while in power and retained power 22 times, which is a success rate of 56 per cent. Quoting the Prime Minister, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters that the Congress faced re-election 40 times and won only seven times, a success rate of 18 per cent.
Regional parties have fared better than the Congress but not the BJP as they won 18 of 36 times when in power, showing a success rate of 50 per cent, PM Modi further noted at the meeting.
BJP MPs raised slogans, lauding PM Modi’s leadership as party veterans, including BJP President JP Nadda, felicitated the Prime Minister at the first meeting of the Parliamentary Party meeting in Parliament’s Winter Session.
The BJP registered a spectacular victory in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the recent state elections. While in Madhya Pradesh, they retained power, in the other Hindi heartland states, the saffron party wrested power from the Congress. The grand old party settled with Telangana as a consolation prize, where Revanth Reddy took oath as the Chief Minister today.
