NDA will break all records in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: PTI

NEW DELHI: Terming the opposition grand alliance as a "failed idea", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the BJP-led NDA will definitely get more seats in the next Lok Sabha polls than it got in 2014 and break all records. In an interview with the Times of India published on Sunday, Modi said people wanted a strong and decisive government and his campaign will focus on "development, fast development and development for all". "We will definitely get more seats than we got the last time and I am confident we will break all records of the seats won by NDA in the past and achieve greater glory," he said. "The people are with us and we have nothing to fear." On the opposition's planned "mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance), Modi said India's status has improved globally since he took power. "After 30 years, a performing, strong and stable government is in power at the Centre. People have bitter experience of coalition governments burdened by politics of compulsions. "I have faith (electorate) will not compromise its vote for a disparate group that has nothing more to offer than a single ideology (if we may even call it so) - to remove Modi," he said. The Prime Minister said "a non-ideological alliance of desperate and disparate groups is not mahagathbandhan but political adventurism. "It is a failed idea that has never succeeded. History tells us such adventurism failed in 1979, 1990 and in 1996. People want a strong and decisive government." Asked about some unease in the ruling BJP-led alliance, Modi said the recent election of the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman - by an NDA candidate despite not having a majority - will put the apprehensions of sceptics to rest. Modi took dig at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for hugging him during the Parliament no-confidence motion and called him a 'naamdar' (one with famous family name). "‘Naamdars' have their own rules. They decide when to hate, where to hate and how to hate. They also decide when to show affection, where to show affection and how to show affection. We are ‘kaamdars'; we have no such privilege," Modi said. Modi said the government's way of working was not to make policy keeping elections in view. "I have a vision for the country till 2022 that's in public domain. All policies and actions are aimed at achieving that vision."