BJP set to form govt, Congress still hopes 

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet Wednesday submitted their resignation to President Droupadi Murmu.

The President accepted the resignation and requested the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers to continue in office till the new Government is formed.

As curtains closed on the Lok Sabha elections, the NDA looked set for a third term with 293 wins. 

The BJP, on its own, stopped short of a majority mark with 240 wins, which means Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar could be the men who would prop up Narendra Modi in New Delhi. 

As BJP leans on allies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) have decided to press for the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The 2024 Verdict is as much about the INDIA bloc story. Defying all predictions, the Opposition put up a power fight and claimed 233 seats. 

The Congress party almost doubled its 2019 tally, grabbing 99 seats. Party leader Rahul Gandhi recorded twin wins in Kerala’s Wayanad and Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli with a margin of over 3 lakh votes in each. 

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday evening, Rahul Gandhi said, “This was a fight to save the Constitution of the country and has emerged victorious in it. The country has said that they do not want Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to run the country,” said Rahul Gandhi in a press conference. 

The power fight by the INDIA bloc was also led by the Samajwadi Party, which dislodged BJP to win the highest number of seats (37) in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s loss in Faizabad — the seat of the Ram Mandir, which consecrated just few months before elections — is seen as an ideological defeat for the party.

 Behind the defeat are echoes of unemployment, inflation, land acquisition and talk of “changes in the Constitution”.