Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely take oath as Prime Minister for the third straight term on Saturday (June 8, 2024), a rare event in Indian political scenario.
Only former Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru had previously won three terms.
Nehru was India’s first Prime Minister since the country achieved its freedom from British rule in 1947.
Meanwhile, Modi met President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi on Wednesday, a day after his BJP-led NDA won the Indian general polls for the third straight term since coming to power in 2014, to tender his resignation.
The President asked Modi to continue in his post till he takes oath as the PM for another term.
Modi won the Lok Sabha polls from temple city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, a politically crucial state where the saffron brigade suffered a major setback at the hand of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
Modi defeated his opponent Ajay Rai of the Congress by less than 1.5 lakh votes.
This is the third time he won the Varanasi seat since making his debut as MP in 2014.
Modi had kickstarted the campaign for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by setting the target for 370 seats for the BJP and 400 for the NDA alliance this time.
Quite contrary to the “Abki bar 400 par” or “400 plus seats this time” slogan, Modi’s BJP failed to achieve the majority mark (272) on its own, paving way for a return of a coalition government trend after a decade.
In what would trigger the debate of anti-incumbency setting in, Modi’s BJP could manage to get to 240 while NDA touched 291, a comfortable figure to run the government but at the mercy of regional parties.
Meanwhile, despite finishing runners up, the celebrations are louder in the INDIA Bloc after they bagged a higher than expected number of seats.
Though several political pundits, opinion and exit polls had almost written off the opposition, Congress (99 seats) led INDIA, comprising several key regional players, put up a strong fight in a close contest.