VARANASI: Narendra Modi, all set to be India’s next Prime Minister, landed Saturday evening in Varanasi — the constituency that has voted him to Parliament. The temple city had prepared itself well to embrace its leader. Modi visited the banks of the Ganges with his close aide Amit Shah to perform the Ganga ‘aarti’.
Modi reached Varanasi in the evening. Kashi Vishwanath Temple was his first stop. At the temple, Narendra Modi performed the ‘rudravishi puja’ to Lord Shiva. Decorated with flowers and saffron banners, the Dashashwamedh Ghat, venue of the ‘aarti’ welcomed the leader, celebrating his thumping win from the city.
The Varanasi administration had rolled out the red carpet welcome to the PM-designate after having denied him permission for an election rally on May 10. Varanasi was a fortress with a special team of the Gujarat Police carrying out inspections of all areas that Mr Modi was likely to pass through.
Modi was pitted against AAPs Arvind Kejriwal who lost to the BJP strongman.
Earlier, in the day hundreds of people thronged the leafy streets of New Delhi to greet Modi’s triumphant march into the capital after he decimated the Congress party in the biggest election victory India has seen in 30 years.
He flew in straight to New Delhi from Ahmedabad to meet the BJP top brass at the party’s 11, Ashok Road headquarters. Janpath was strewn with rose petals to welcome his cavalcade.
At the party office, he gave a brief speech to the waiting crowd, thanking ‘generations of karyakartas’ for his victory.
He then went inside to a rousing welcome by party leaders, among whom were one-time dissenters L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj. But Modi embraced Advani and touched his feet. His greeting of Sushma was equally warm.
It was decided at the meeting that the BJP parliamentary board would formally declare Narendra Modi their leader on May 20. There is no word yet on when the swearing-in ceremony will be.
“Tsunamo!”, declared the Asian Age newspaper on its front page, playing on the name ‘NaMo’ often used for Modi.
“Modi juggernaut crushes Congress,” the Business Standard newspaper’s headline exclaimed after Friday’s results showed the party of the Gandhis and Prime Minister Singh suffered its worst-ever wipeout, winning just 44 of the 543 parliamentary seats at stake in the election that was staggered over five weeks.
Modi will not formally take office until after Tuesday, the party said. Modi has given India its first parliamentary majority after 25 years of coalition governments, with his party winning more than six times the seats garnered by Congress.
With almost all 543 seats declared by Saturday morning, Modi’s BJP looked set to win 282 seats, 10 more than the majority required to rule. With its allied parties, it was heading for a comfortable tally of around 337 – the clearest result since the 1984 assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi propelled her son Rajiv to office.
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