NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah on Friday exuded confidence of winning a clear majority in the Lok Sabha elections with Shah claiming that the party will itself win 300 plus seats and form another NDA government with the pre-poll alliance partners, keeping doors open for other parties to join.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi vehemently refused to preempt what the people decide, saying he will wait for their mandate on May 23 when the votes will be counted and decide his party’s decisions on the basis of that mandate. Not good on his part to say what will be the people’s mandate, he stressed. “Why be impatient when 23rd is not far away,” he asked when repeatedly asked.
Both Congress and BJP held parallel press conferences at their party headquarters here almost simultaneously just before the curtains were rung down on the 2-month old poll campaign for the last and seventh round of polling on Sunday that will also see one in Varanasi from where Modi is seeking re-election.
Prime Minister Modi briefly spoke on how after decades it will be for the first time that a party winning the majority in 2014 will be winning this election again after a long time and took pride that not he could campaign without a single programme cancelled, not even the weather disrupted his electioneering. He, however, refused to take any questions at the Press conference at the BJP headquarters, deflecting them to Amit Shah, saying “Adhyaksh hamare liye sab kuchh hote hain (President is everything for us).” He preferred a monologue while Shah underlined how Modi has given so many interviews to both print and electronic media in the course of the poll campaign.
Rahul Gandhi was excited when told that Modi will at last be holding the first press conference as the Prime Minister saying “very impressive” and he went on to ask the PM why he did not agree on Rafale debate and that he wanted to ask him why Anil Ambani was given away Rs 3,000 crore of the Indian Air Force (IAF). No reporter at the BJP presser asked about it and in any case the reply would have come from Amit Shah as in the case of other questions.
He was not disheartened for Modi not taking questions. He quickly tweeted: “Congratulations Modi Ji. Excellent Press Conference! Showing up is half the battle. Next time Mr Shah may even allow you to answer a couple of questions. Well done!”
