National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah Thursday said the country has rejected an alternative to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “second term” is not a “fluke”.
A vocal critic of Modi-led NDA government, Abdullah also requested the BJP leader to “take everyone along” in the coming five years as “this country belongs to all”.
“We fought the election and tried to have an alternative to the BJP and the NDA and put it before the country. The country did not accept it. The reality is that the places from where we were expecting the opposition to win, the number of seats from there has come down rather than going up,” Abdullah told reporters here.
“But, today is the day of Modi’s success. I think it would be wrong if we do not send a message of congratulations to him. ‘Jo jeeta wohi sikandar’ (he who wins, is the king),” he said.
“The endeavour should be to take everyone along. When he (Modi) won for the first time (in 2014), people said he won by a fluke, but now this is not by fluke and the people of the country have given him another opportunity,” he added.
In what is certain to be a resounding victory, the BJP, until 4.30 pm, had won five seats and was leading in 294 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in seven phases, demolishing the combined opposition, according to the partial vote count released by the Election Commission.
