'You made it': Rajinikanth congratulates Modi on his landslide victory

Tamil 'superstar' Rajinikanth on Thursday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his landslide victory in Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

"Respected dear @narendramodi ji ... hearty congratulations ... You made it !!! God bless (sic)," Rajinikanth, who had backed Modi saying he seemed to be a 'strong' man, tweeted.

Respected dear @narendramodi ji
hearty congratulations ... You made it !!! God bless.

— Rajinikanth (@rajinikanth) May 23, 2019

He congratulated the prime minister after trends showed a clear majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

If the trends stay until final results, the BJP would have improved on its 2014 performance when it had won 282 seats on its own in the 543-member Lok Sabha. 

The results are a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security and nationalism. He also relentlessly attacked the Congress Party for what he called its dynastic legacy, and blamed it for the country's woes. The opposition had criticised the BJP campaign as divisive and polarising.

Still, the trend shows that the Modi wave, along with party president Amit Shah's strategic brains, swept across geographies, caste lines, age, gender and economic status. Shah was leading in Gandhinagar in Gujarat by more than 3 lakh votes. The BJP is set to repeat its 2014 showing in Modi's home state when it had won all 26 seats.

In the politically critical state of Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine had posed a stiff challenge, the BJP was leading in 57 of the 80 seats at stake. The SP was ahead in eight and BSP in 11. Although the BJP had won 71 seats in the last elections, the performance is much better than what many exit polls had forecast.