PM Modi should take moral responsibility and resign, says Congress’ Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is still lagging behind the majority mark in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resign.

“He used to pretend that he was extraordinary. Now it has been proved that the outgoing Prime Minister is going to become former. Take moral responsibility and resign. This is the message of this election”, Jairam Ramesh posted on X.

According to the Election Commission of India, BJP is currently ahead on 242 seats. The majority mark is 272. Congress is leading on 95 seats, Samajwadi Party on 36, DMK on 21 seats, Trinamool Congress on 31, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) on 10 seats, NCP (SP) on 7 seats, CPI(M) on 4 seats and Aam Aadmi Party on 3 seats.

Trends for all 543 seats are now available. The following have become clear:

1. It will be a staggering political and decisively moral defeat for Mr. Narendra Modi

2. The exit polls that he orchestrated have been completely exposed for what they were–a total sham.

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 4, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading followed by the Congress’ Ajay Rai from Varanasi. Around 642 million people voted in Lok Sabha elections held over seven phases in a mammoth six-week period. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security.

The counting for State Legislative Assemblies of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies also began.

Strict security has been put in place for the smooth conduct of counting of votes for over 8,000 candidates in this general election. The BJP is eyeing a third straight term in power, while the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party.

Most exit polls predicted a straight term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with quite a few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led NDA. (ANI)