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June 4, 2024, 2:57 AM
On the day of the announcement of the election results, Modi supporter: “He came to us as an instrument of God”
By Esha Mitra and Aishwarya S. Iyer, CNN, New Delhi, India
Surjeet Singh, a taxi driver in Delhi, is confident that the BJP will win the June 4 election.
Esha Mitra/CNN
Surjeet Singh, 50, said on Tuesday as vote counting got underway across India that in his 25 years working as a taxi driver in Delhi he has seen governments come and go but none have been as powerful as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Everyone I’ve spoken to today has said the BJP will be back,” he said. “For us middle-class people, (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is the only person who has achieved something and made India’s name shine abroad.”
“Even the meditation he did was for the country,” he said, referring to Modi’s two-day stay at the island shrine last week.
Modi has twice meditated at the end of election campaigns, but in recent days he has engaged in increasingly loud displays of faith as he seeks to tap into Hindu nationalist sentiment as he seeks a third consecutive five-year term in power.
Singh said he had been monitoring the polls all morning as the results were being counted, and while the BJP was not doing as well as expected, he was confident the party would achieve its goal of winning a majority in Parliament.
Initial results: As of noon local time, The BJP has secured one seat and is leading in more than 230 constituencies, while the main opposition Indian National Congress party is leading in 96 constituencies.
Gradually the questions began to arise: Even within the BJP, Now there are seeds Doubts have been raised about the party’s ability to secure a super majority, which would require winning 400 of the 543 seats.
Rajgopal Kashyap, a 28-year-old party member from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, travelled all the way to Delhi to watch the results.
Aishwarya Iyer/CNN
“I can’t say for sure as the counting is still on. We may not reach 400 seats but we will win 360,” said Rajgopal Kashyap, a 28-year-old BJP member, who came to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh to watch the results.
He told CNN from BJP headquarters on Tuesday that there was still hope.
“Even if we don’t get 400 seats, we will try harder. But we know we will form a government anyway,” he said.
“No one can do what PM Modi can do. He has come to us as an instrument of God. He is the only one who can take our country forward and run the country,” he said.
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