Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, credited for his party's unexpected performance in the Lok Sabha elections, made a bold claim on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi narrowly avoided defeat in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi.
"The truth is the Prime Minister barely escaped in Varanasi, and he would have been defeated himself. The BJP was defeated in Ayodhya. The people of Ayodhya have sent a message that they do not appreciate hatred and violence," Gandhi said while speaking in Kerala's Malappuram.
In Varanasi, PM Modi defeated Congress candidate Ajay Rai by a significant margin of over 150,000 votes, securing 612,970 votes compared to Rai's 460,457 votes. Meanwhile, in Ayodhya, the Samajwadi Party's Awadesh Prasad emerged victorious.
The Congress party, defying exit polls that had written them off, secured 99 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, including six in the BJP stronghold of Uttar Pradesh. More significantly, the Opposition's INDIA bloc won 234 seats. The BJP, which had crossed 300 seats in the previous elections, managed to secure only 240 seats this time, falling 32 seats short of a simple majority in the lower house of Parliament.
To form the government, the BJP had to rely on its allies, including N Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, and Eknath Shinde. The Congress claimed this reduction in seats was a moral defeat for Narendra Modi.
Earlier this week, Modi took the oath of office for his third consecutive term as Prime Minister of India. Taking a jab at Modi, Rahul Gandhi noted the irony in Modi's recent actions concerning the Constitution.
"Before the elections, you saw BJP leaders saying they would tear up the Constitution. After the elections, you saw the Prime Minister reverently touching the Constitution to his forehead," Gandhi remarked.
"The people of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and other states have shown the Prime Minister that he cannot dictate to the people of India what they want. The people have demonstrated that the Constitution is our voice, and it must not be tampered with," he added.
