Labour Minister Santosh Lad has said the Lok Sabha results had proved that the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was fading, and termed the results a moral victory for the Congress and the INDIA bloc.
Speaking to presspersons in Dharwad on Monday, Mr. Lad said that the Modi wave had diminished and people had reposed its faith in the Congress, which had resulted in an increase in its vote share drastically.
The Minister said although the party could not get the required seats to form the government, the results were encouraging. It was a collective effort of the Congress workers that almost dislodged the Modi government, he said.
He said that Union Minister Pralhad Joshi claimed that he would win by four lakh votes, but the Congress’ efforts brought it down to 96,000. The guarantee schemes of the Congress government had helped Vinod Asuti to give a close fight, he said.
The Minister however admitted that they could not convert the vote share into seats to emerge as the single-largest party in the State.
Replying to a query, the Minister said that it was surprising that the BJP managed to get a lead of over 32,000 votes in his constituency Kalghatagi, and nearly 23,000 in Dharwad Rural represented by former Minister Vinay Kulkarni. He said the party would introspect and take corrective measures.
