Is Modi-wave still evident? Here is what Shashi Tharoor thinks

As the election season is approaching the country, the Opposition parties have started raising doubts whether the eloquence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again work for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), facing the outrage of farmers, minorities and the SC/STs, in upcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, when asked the question – Is Modi-wave still evident? – outrightly denied it saying the BJP would not even win 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2019. The Saffron party had alone won 71 seats in 2014.

Interreacting with reporters at Nalwar near Hyderabad, Tharoor said that there was no Modi-wave in the country and the BJP will be lucky to win 10 seats in 2019 if the Congress party joined hands with the SP and BSP.

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“In 2014, Modi’s party (along with allies) bagged 73 (Lok Sabha) seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh. But had you added the votes of the three principal opposition parties - the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress, the BJP, at the peak of Modi’s wave, would have lost 49 of these seats.

“But there is no Modi wave today in the country. You can be sure if these three parties campaign together, do not divide the vote, and put up common candidates in UP, they (BJP) will be lucky to win 10 seats in 2019,” the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

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Terming the 2019 polls as “a battle for India’s democratic soul”, Tharoor said that secularism, inclusiveness and social justice for poor and marginalised people were non-negotiable for Congress.

“For us (Congress) secularism is non-negotiable, inclusiveness is non-negotiable, social justice, particularly for the poor and marginalised communities, the Adivasis and the vulnerable groups, is non-negotiable,” he added.