 "2024 Lok Sabha elections may be Narendra Modi's first electoral reversal")
In his more than two-decade-long political career, this year’s General Elections may be the first time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led an election but his party failed to cross the halfway mark alone.
According to data from the Election Commission of India, as of 3 pm on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading 240 seats. It was followed by the Indian National Congress on 99 seats and the Samajwadi Party on 35 seats.
The halfway mark in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 is 272.
A first for BJP under PM Narendra Modi
In 2014, the BJP won 282 seats out of a total of 543 seats. In 2019, the BJP had improved its performance and won 303 seats.
In both years, it had enough seats to form the government by itself. However, it may not be the case this year as crossing the 272 mark looks difficult at the moment.
Holds for state elections considered
This will also hold if the assembly elections of Gujarat under Modi are considered. In all the years, the BJP alone crossed the majority mark.
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In 2002, when Modi had advanced the schedule of Assembly Elections, BJP won 127 seats out of 182 seats. In 2007 and 2012, BJP won 122 and 115 assembly seats in the assembly respectively.
Narendra Modi leads in Varanasi
As of 3:15 pm, PM Modi was leading in Varanasi with a margin of 153,989 seats. In 2019, he won the seat with a margin of 400,000 votes.
On Tuesday, Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu congratulated Modi and his cabinet colleague Amit Shah over the NDA’s impending victory in the Lok Sabha polls.
TDP is a part of the NDA alliance led by the BJP.
Congress says PM Modi ‘must resign’
In a post on social media platform X, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the INDIA bloc’s better-than-expected performance was a sign that it was time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resign from his post.
“He used to pretend to be unprecedented. Now it has been proved that the outgoing Prime Minister is going to be a former PM. Take moral responsibility and resign. This is the message of this election,” he said.