India General Elections 2024: War of words continues a day before counting

The war of words continued between the ruling parties and the opposition bloc on the eve of the Lok Sabha election vote counting While the candidates gathered wits the opposition said the results will prove the exit polls wrong The NDA parties were confident of PM Narendra Modis thumping return though some said their numbers were likely to decrease in MaharashtraBJPs X handles pinned post had been saying for the past four days ldquoAgle Manglawar fir ek baar Modi sarkar The Modi government once again next Tuesdayrdquo In anticipation of a big victory Mumbai BJP had begun preparing 10000 laddus from Monday morning itself Events have been planned in the national capital and across the statesOn the same platform the Congress quoted its expresident Sonia Gandhi as saying ldquoWe have to just wait and see We are very hopeful that our results are completely the opposite of what the exit poll is sayingrdquo Many other INDIA leaders reciprocated Gandhis statementSanjay Raut Shiv Sena UBT and Ram Kadam BJPIn Maharashtra Shiv Sena UBT mouthpiece Saamana created a flutter Monday morning It said PM Modi would be out on Tuesday For Shiv Sena UBT these elections are a fight for its survival postbreakup with the Eknath Shinde group that is out to prove its supremacy and originality as endorsed by the election commission Similar is the case with the NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar For BJP its a testing time as far as the selection of new allies is concernedThe editorials author and party MP Sanjay Raut said ldquoWe dont need any exit polls We work at the ground level and know the undercurrent created by Uddhav Thackerays campaign We INDIA bloc will win and make a government by winning 295310 seats NDA will not win more than 225 seats In Maharashtra we are winning 3035 seatsrdquoBJP legislator Ram Kadam reacted sharply to Raut ldquoIs Raut speaking after a drunken night What kind of atonement will he undertake if proved wrong Will he quit politics It will be clear by 3 pm Tuesday that Modiji has beaten the extortionistsrdquo Kadam saidMost exit polls have given the BJP highest numbers nationally but indicated a drop in Maharashtra Some say the two sides will share the spoils equally Some areas have either NDA or INDIA leading by a slender margin Maharashtra has 48 seats of which the NDA had won 41 in 2019 The Lok Sabha elections in the state that witnessed its politics changing 360 degrees in the past five years are difficult to predictBJPs senior minister Girish Mahajan told a news channel on Monday that the NDA might not retain 41 seats but continue to be the topper He said the selection of unsuitable candidates could be the reason for the losses in some places However he did not specify who among the threeparty Mahayuti will lose more seatsThe BJP camp has been hoping to plug the gap created in the states it has been winning regularly by adding numbers down south Tamil Nadu Andhra Karnataka Telangana and Kerala West Bengal and Odisha A senior BJP leader said the party has been able to make inroads this time around ldquoWe will increase our vote share It may not translate in very big numbers but it will be a good beginning for us in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala where the next elections will see more formidable fightsrdquo he said adding that the party will perform much better in Bengal Odisha Telangana and APShiv Sena Shinde legislator Sanjay Shirsat endorsed the BJP leaders observation He was very confident of the BJPled NDArsquos resounding victory across the country ldquoLook at Tamil Nadu and other places in south India where the BJP will be gaining more That will take us near a 400markrdquo he said He was equally confident of NDA making a good kill in MaharashtraOpposition leader in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar dismissed the NDA claims ldquoBJPs defeat is confirmed By Tuesday evening we will be at the top We will form the next governmentrdquo he saidSevenphase polling for the 543 parliamentary constituencies started on April 19 and ended on June 1 Counting will be held today The results of simultaneous assembly elections in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh will also be declared on Tuesday along with some byelections The votes for the state elections in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh were counted on Sunday543No of parliamentary constituencies