Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Rajya Sabha, Feb 7, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Two days after he exuded confidence about the NDA winning at least 400 seats in Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday targeted an “outdated” Congress in Rajya Sabha saying he prays that it manages to secure 40 seats.
In one of his last speeches in Parliament during his second tenure, Modi also targeted Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in the Upper House.
In the Rajya Sabha, he used remarks by I.N.D.I.A. ally Mamata Banerjee that Congress would struggle to cross 40 seats to attack the main Opposition party, saying, “A challenge has been posed before you from West Bengal that Congress will not be able to cross 40. I pray that you are able to secure 40.”
The Congress, which presently has 48 MPs in Lok Sabha, had won 52 seats in 2019 polls. Modi on Monday, while replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha, had claimed that the BJP would win at least 370 seats and that the NDA together would clinch over 400 in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, where he is seeking a third term.
The Prime Minister also said he was now convinced that the Congress' thoughts had “become outdated” and that it had “outsourced its work now.”
“When I listen to them my belief is further strengthened that the party has become outdated even in their thinking ... they have outsourced their work. Such a huge party, which ruled the country for decades, has seen such a downfall. We are not delighted, our sympathies are with you. But what can the doctor do if the patient himself is ... what do I add?” he said.
Attacking Rahul, the Prime Minister said the party had tried to make a start-up for the ‘yuvraj’ but it remained a non-starter. Modi also took on Kharge, saying he managed to speak for a longer duration in the Rajya Sabha and he was wondering how he got the chance to speak that long.
"Then I realised that two special commanders were not there and so he took the advantage of it and I think that Kharge-ji must have heard that song Aisa mauka phir kahan milega (When will I get such an opportunity again)," he said in apparent reference to senior Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, who are accompanying Rahul in the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
Modi also said he could not express his "special gratitude" to Kharge earlier because he had blessed the NDA to win 400 seats. "The lack of entertainment that we were missing in the Lok Sabha was fulfilled by him," he said in apparent reference to Rahul's absence in Lok Sabha during the session.
Modi also sought to target former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi when he claimed that the former did not do an on-the-ground assessment during a calamity in Gujarat as the National Advisory Committee did not allow him to do so. The NAC was headed by Sonia then.