After a severe drubbing in Lok Sabha polls, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said resignations on moral grounds will not resolve problems faced by the party.
MPCC president Manikrao Thakare said the state unit will have to introspect the reasons of the unprecedented defeat and collectively work to regain the lost support of the people for the upcoming assembly elections.
“The mandate of the Lok Sabha elections is decisively in favour of the main opposition party and its allies all over the country and hence resigning for loses in one or two seats in the state is of no use,” Thakare said referring to the resignations of EGS minister Nitin Raut and Industries Minister Narayan Rane owning moral responsibility for the defeat in Nagpur and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seats respectively.
“I have spoken to Rane over telephone and will hold discussions with him once he returns to Mumbai,” he said.
Raut said Nagpur, the headquarters of the RSS, has always chosen Congress as their preferred party. Diksha Bhoomi in Nagpur has given message of equality and secularism which has been a factor in congress victories.
“In this election for the first time, BJP candidate and has won by a huge margin. Secularism and equality are in danger… The election result in disturbing and undesirable. Owning moral responsibility for the Congress defeat, I tender my resignation,” he said.
Rane owned up responsibility for the defeat of the Congress candidates in the state as well that of his son Nilesh in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.
He has thanked Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for his co-operation and wished him best for the future.
Former BJP national president Nitin Gadkari is back in reckoning after he defeated veteran Congress leader Vilas Muttemwar in Nagpur, the seat of RSS headquarters, in his debut Lok Sabha election.
Gadkari surprised the seven-term MP, who has won four terms from Nagpur in his political career, perfectly in tune with the saffron wave that has swept Vidarbha region and other parts of the country as well.
Gadkari trounced Muttemwar by a margin of 2,86,828 votes, polling a total of 5,87,767 votes as against 3,00,939 votes secured by the Congress leader.
In 1985, Gadkari, an MLC, had contested unsuccessfully as MLA.
A student leader, Gadkari rose to become the state BJP president and then steered the party at national level before stepping down over allegations of corruption in business dealings.
As former PWD minister in erstwhile NDA government (1995-55) in Maharashtra, he is credited with building a network of flyovers across the state and the Mumbai-Pune express highway.
Maharashtra PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal was defeated by Shiv Sena’s Hemant Godse in Nashik Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 1,87,336 votes.
Godse polled 4,94,435 votes as against Bhujbal’s 3,07,399.
NCP’s Udayan Raje Bhosale has retained his Satara Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 3,66,594 votes.
Bhosale, a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj trounced his BJP rival Purshottam Jadhav.
Bhosale polled 5,22,531 votes while Jadhav polled 1,95,937 votes, as per figures given by State election office.
Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shewale defeated Congress’s Eknath Gaikwad by 1,38,046 votes from Mumbai South Central. Shewale polled 3,80,747 votes as against Gaikwad’s 242701 votes.
In Dindori, Harishchandra Chavan of BJP retained the seat polling 5,42,784 votes. While NCP’s Bharati Pawar polled 2,95,165 votes.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) bubble has burst in the Lok Sabha polls.
The party which put nine candidates in Maharashtra, has cut a sorry figure, with its nominees not even nearing the finish line.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s tactical move to field candidates against the Shiv Sena on one hand and extend support to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on the other has clearly not worked.
In 2009, the MNS polled 4.6% of the total votes, but indications are that the vote share of the party will go downward this time around.
The drubbing was due to many factors, including the absence of consolidation of Marathi and Gujarati votes in the party’s favour.
MNS fielded three contenders from Mumbai but none of them won.
“We had told Raj Thackeray that he should not play a spoilsport and not field candidates as he has backed Narendra Modi for PM,” state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said.
The MNS, which fielded nine candidates besides extending support to two candidates fielded by Peasant and Workers Party, was banking on the Modi “wave” to boost the electoral prospects of its candidates in Mumbai and adjoining Bhiwandi, Thane and Kalyan-Dombivali.
MNS fielded three candidates in Mumbai — Bala Nandgaonkar (Mumbai South), director-actor Mahesh Manjrekar (Mumbai North West) and Aditya Shirodkar (Mumbai South Central).
It also put up Raju Patil (Kalyan-Dombivili), Pradeep Pawar (Nashik), Deepak Paigude (Pune), Suresh Mhatre (Bhiwandi) and Abhijit Panse (Thane).
The MNS leader was snubbed by BJP chief Rajnath Singh for extending an “unsolicited support” to Modi and “seeking votes” in his name without joining the Shiv-Sena-BJP-RPI alliance.
Union Minister and Congress leader Milind Deora congratulated Narendra Modi and said the Congress will “introspect and emerge stronger”.
“Thank all my supporters. Congrats to the winner and wishes to Modi ji. Hope the nation moves forward. Cong will introspect and emerge stronger,” Deora tweeted.
The Union Minister of State for Communication and Information technology lost the election from his Shiv Sena rival Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South parliamentary constituency.
With BJP’s Narendra Modi-led NDA alliance getting majority in the Lok Sabha 2014 elections, celebrities like Rajinikanth, Shekhar Kapur and Shah Rukh Khan hailed people’s verdict and hoped the new government will take India forward.
South superstar Rajinikanth, who met Modi in Chennai when the latter was touring Tamil Nadu in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, congratulated the future PM of the country. “Hearty congratulations dear Narendra Modi ji on your historic win. Best wishes,” Rajinikanth posted on Twitter. Tamil superstar Dhanush, son-in-law of Rajinikanth, tweeted, “Change is here. Magic has happened.”
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan said elections proved that change is the only constant. “What a solid mandate given by the people. It proves again that the only constant is change. Now to move forward with strong and active faith, India,” Khan tweeted.
Celebrities including Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Kapur, Asha Bhosle, Karan Johar, Dhanush also welcomed Modi with the hope for a “new India, opportunity and future”.
“End of era of feudal politics. Dynastic politics. A new India. A new opportunity. A new future. Let it not go waste Narendra Modi congrats,” Kapur tweeted. Kher, whose actress wife Kirron defeated AAP’s Gul Panag and Congress’ Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh constituency, tweeted, “Achche Din Aa Gaye (Good days are here). Jai Ho.” Veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle tweeted, “Finally a Prime Minister who speaks Hindi… Jai Hind.” Shabana Azmi said she is happy to see that the people of India voted for change.
“What a decisive victory for Modi and the BJP! The people of India have voted for change. Let the new Govt rule wisely and well,” she said. Director Karan Johar called Modi’s success the first blockbuster of the year. “BJP… the first major blockbuster of the year! Huge opening and no sign of a Monday drop,” Johar joked.
This is so well-timed. We needed a strong, decisive and stable government in the center with an adamant leader. People of India elected Modi as their leader for firm leadership. BJP gets majority on its own which is a good sign. NDA had resulted in lackluster performance; the first NDA government was headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji. It is an upright move that BJP has won the election with thumping majority and it is good for the nation but at the same time the victory should be used for the upliftment of the country and not to take any revenge. They should avoid mistakes done by the earlier government. More than Modi’s magic, it is anti-incumbency factor against the government and its policies and no other strong parties can take non-Congress, non-BJP alternative. People of this country have given one more chance to BJP for forming a government after 10 years. Let’s see, how they utilise this opportunity. This result is the need of the hour to destroy Congress’s arrogance.
However, Modi had set the mood of the campaign much earlier in February 2013, when he spoke about the ‘Gujarat model of development’ during an interaction with the students at Delhi’s Sri Ram College of Commerce. He spoke about the Gujarat model again at the India Today Conclave in March, positioning himself as a no-nonsense, pro-development leader. The BJP built up its campaign right from the world go, i.e. on September 13, 2013, the day when Modi was announced to be the party’s PM nominee. Two days later, on September 15, addressing his first rally as PM candidate in Rewari, Haryana, he raised the issue of secularism even before the Congress could do it so to attack him. “If politicians want to learn secularism, look at the Indian Army,” he said, living the dictum that offence is the best defence.
All these years, Congress was surviving on vote bank politics post 2004. Nevertheless, they were joined by MMS in their mission and they kept hoodwinking people for few votes from section of society. Every Indian started using internet as a platform to connect with the people. Social Network sites like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter became real voice of people to show real versus fake. From there, Congress’s first family started losing grip in the country. The leadership vacuum created by Congress’s dirty politics was rightly filled in by NaMo who was development oriented. Due to immense presence on social media and active support groups, even main stream media learnt that colluding with political party doesn’t pay in long run. Development and good governance will be on the agenda in all future elections. Finally, people have seen through the divisive politics played, the sheer corruption and loot, in the name of “Secularism”, Caste, Reservations and Socialism. This will be the death of Dynasty Politics once for all!
In initial trends, BJP alone was leading in 275 seats — its best ever tally in Lok Sabha polls, while the NDA has crossed the 300-mark. The earlier best by BJP was 182 seats in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, when the party formed its government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Top BJP leaders including L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh congratulated Modi for the party’s electoral victory. Buoyed by the party’s stellar performance, celebrations started at the party’s Delhi headquarters right from the time initial trends started trickling in and workers and leaders danced to the beats of ‘dhols’ and distributed sweets. Modi, who is contesting from Vadodara and Varanasi won at both the places. While he was leading with a hefty margin of over 5.6 lakh votes in Vadodara, in Varanasi he was leading by with one lakh votes. Barely an hour after the count began, the picture was clear: it was just a countdown for Narendra Modi to ascend the high chair. Riding on an immense electoral wave in favour of its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, the BJP is marching ahead of all others. The man of the moment is towering over others and fast emerging as the destiny of the nation. It’s not a Modi wave, as talked about, it is a TsuNaMo. The message is clear and the future could not have been spelt in more direct terms. The Modi wave, it seems, was actually larger than what was believed. As the man of the moment sits quietly in his home in Gandhinagar watching election trends on TV, the future awaits him in New Delhi.
Modi’s 38 mega rallies across the nation were attended by 1.1 crore people while his 55 rallies during Assembly polls in four states were attended by an additional 50 lakh people. His 196 Bharat Vijay rallies across India were attended by 1.5 crore people. Then there were other means of reaching out to the voters. His much-talked-about Chai Pe Charcha event across 4,000 locations helped him reach out to 50 lakh people. His 3D hologram rallies generated much curiosity in 1,350 locations where they were held and helped Modi reach out to 1.4 crore people. Modi is known for using technology to reach out to youngsters. The BJP used modern Information Technology tools to their best potential in its LS campaign. Other than the Chai Pe Charcha videoconferences and 3D rallies of Virtual Modi, the BJP sent SMSes, WhatsApp text messages and voice calls to 13 crore people. The 24×7 war rooms, equipped with social media experts, were also set up to manage the party’s campaign on the internet. A group of 200 youngsters from prestigious institutions like IITs and IIMs quit their jobs to join the BJP’s aggressive internet campaign under an umbrella group titled ‘Citizens for Accountable Governance’. Modi already has a massive online and social media campaign. Among the first major politicians to take up social media, he has 3.9 million followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter and over 1.3 crore likes on his Facebook page.
All this has benefited Modi and BJP in gaining seats in the history. Many parties like DMK, MNS, BSP etc were defeated with Zero seats. Taking moral responsibility for Congress party’s debacle, party president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi congratulated the new Narendra Modi led NDA government for their victory. Other parties who were in shock, has not come forward to face media. Moreover, newly emerged Aam Aadmi Party received four seats and this is much better for a year old political party.
Now, it’s time to say, Good bye to Congress and welcome BJP. I hope they will live up to the people’s expectations.
Accepting that the Congress had been given a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, party president Sonia Gandhi said on Friday that she accepted the verdict of the people with humility.
Addressing a short press conference in the national capital along with her son and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Sonia said, “The mandate is clearly against us. We accept the verdict of the people with humility,” adding, “As party president I accept responsibility for our defeat.”
She congratulated the new government but at the same time said, “We hope that the new government which will come at Centre will not compromise with the interest of the nation.”
Sonia also told the press that the Congress would continue to fight for their ideologies.
Speaking before Sonia, Rahul too said that in his view the Congress had done badly. “There is lot for us to think about. I hold myself responsible for what has happened,” he said.
The Congress has been handed a drubbing by the people of India who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Whereas, the Congress ended up with its worst ever tally and went below 100 mark, the BJP got an absolute majority with NDA crossing the 300 figure mark.
This is the first time since 1984 that any party has got such a massive mandate.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led the party’s campaign from the front addressing rallies across India with BJP embarking on one its most humongous campaign.
Though Rahul was the face of the campaign of his party, the Congress had not named anyone as its PM candidate.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which stunned everyone by its impressive show in the Delhi Assembly elections in December 2013, has now been completely routed from the national capital. The Narendra Modi wave has swept Delhi with the Bharatiya Janata Party leading in all seven seats. However, what’s interesting is that it is now the second largest party in all constituencies, throwing the Congress out of the contest completely.
The AAP’s big names Ashutosh, Rakhi Birla and Raj Mohan Gandhi are trailing and so is its National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi. The party also was expecting a good performance by its Chandigarh candidate and actress Gul Panag, who failed to make a mark in the constituency which has been won by her BJP counterpart Kirron Kher.
In fact, one the AAP’s key candidate, Kumar Vishwas, who was confident of winning Amethi is seeing a humiliating defeat in the constituency. It’s a close fight there between Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi vs BJP’s Smriti Irani.
The AAP is facing rout even in Delhi’s neighbourhood of Gurgaon, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Its big name and ideologue Prof. Yogendra Yadav is trailing in Gurgaon. In Karnataka, the AAP struggled to get even a few thousand votes. It’s candidate V Balakrishnan of the Infosys is trailing in Bangalore Central by a huge margin.
However, the party has managed to spring a surprise in Punjab where it has won in one constituency, is leading in three constituencies and is a close second in one constituency. The AAP’s star candidate and Punjab comedian Bhagwant Mann registered a massive win from the Sangrur constituency in Punjab. He has defeated Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in Sangrur.
AAP’s Faridkot candidate Prof. Sadhu Singh is also on its way to winning from the seat, leading by a margin of over 80,000 votes. Its Fatehgarh Sahib candidate Harinder Singh Khalsa is also leading against the Congress’s Sadhu Singh by over 30,000 votes.
AAP Patiala candidate Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi too is leading while HS Phoolka was a close second in Ludhiana.
However, that’s the only success story that the AAP can take forward from the 2014 Lok Sabha elections even as the party had over 400 candidates contesting across India. It’s 49-day government in Delhi and Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation as the Delhi CM certainly seems to have hit the AAP.
The AAP had made headlines with its claims that it has brought about an anti-corruption mood in the country. The BJP and the Congress all along raised questions saying the AAP was being overestimated.
This election has certainly been swept away by the bigger perception of the Modi wave. The AAP yet is not a game changer.
Lauding the strong showing by BJP-led NDA in the general elections, RSS on Friday said people of the country have voted for a change in favour of Narendra Modi.
“The mandate of the people for a change was expected. It’s a matter of pleasure for us. We congratulate Modiji and the new government which is going to be formed under his leadership. We expect that it would do good work for the benefit of the country,” senior RSS functionary Ram Madhav said.
He said it was also a matter of pleasure that BJP was heading towards simple majority in Lok Sabha.
“Going by the current trends, it seems that the people have put their faith in BJP through Modi,” Madhav said.
On being asked about the role RSS would play in government formation, he said, “Sangh would have no role in government and in the Council of Ministers. It would be decided by the party and its leaders.”
Asked about the role played by the organisation during the polls, Madhav said, “Our role was limited only to educate people before the election and about the challenges the nation is facing today.”
He said volunteers of RSS have done a good job through their door-to-door campaigns.
“Our people have done their best to go from door to door to tell people about the need for a change. We are happy that besides major efforts made by Modiji himself and the party and all the efforts made by swayam sevaks, the results we see today favour for a change.”
Accepting that the Congress had been given a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, party president Sonia Gandhi said on Friday that she accepted the verdict of the people with humility.