PM Narendra Modi hoisted the national flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort Tuesday (August 15) morning to a 21-gun salute and then addressed the nation. Three days earlier, as India was gearing up to celebrate its 77th Independence Day, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress party claimed that this was the last time Modi would be hoisting the Tricolour, insinuating that Modi won’t be the PM for a third term in 2024.
TMC leaders Shashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh claimed, “On August 15, PM Modi will be hoisting the Tricolour at the Red Fort for the last time as PM. Next year, the INDIA alliance-backed PM will unfurl the Tricolour.”
“He knows very well that his aspirations in 2024 will not be fulfilled due to the presence of Bengal and Mamata Banerjee. Bengal showed the way forward in defeating BJP and its impact was seen in states like Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. INDIA alliance is in place to counter him. Hence, he has no option but to defame Bengal,” TMC leaders added.
The enthusiastic declaration that Modi will be overthrown in the upcoming 2024 general elections made by TMC officials only brings back memories of what yet another Trinamool Congress top leader had wished for five years earlier in 2019. TMC MP Derek O’Brien was then quoted by the ANI as saying that TMC and all other opposition parties had taken up a challenge to dethrone PM Modi in 2019. However, BJP not only came back for its 2nd term, it did so by registering a landslide win bagging over 300 seats in the elections.
It may be recalled how when the country was gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC senior leader Derek O’Brien claimed that PM Modi would deliver his final Red Fort speech in 2018 and owing to the “writing on the wall” insinuated that Modi won’t be the PM for a second term in 2019. This he claimed was a challenge taken up by the TMC and all other opposition parties.
However, coming as a slap on the face of Derek O’Brien and the leftist-liberal likes of his, who predicted dooms for the BJP in the 2019 elections, Narendra Modi came back to power with even a bigger mandate than 2014. The Indian citizens had once again reinstated their trust in PM Modi and BJP formed the government for the second consecutive with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 353 seats of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha. In 2014, the BJP had won 282 seats in the Lok Sabha.
In 2019, the BJP won 37.76% of the votes, while the NDA’s combined vote was 45% of the 603.7 million votes that were polled. The Indian National Congress won 52 seats, failing to get 10% of the seats needed to claim the post of Leader of the Opposition. In addition, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 91 seats, while other parties won 98 seats.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to take place less than a year from now and while we will have to wait and watch how things unfold, the people’s preference right now was highlighted in Times Now Navbharat and ETG’s recently concluded survey. The survey of Times Now Navbharat-ETG held in July this year revealed that the BJP alliance can return to power again with 285-325 seats while the Congress-led alliance can be restricted to 150 seats. If elections are held now, BJP’s seats will decrease as compared to last time, however, it will still get an absolute majority in the centre.