New Delhi:

The BJP registering a historic win in four of the five states that went to polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this evening that the BJP workers have “kept their promise of an early Holi”. Congratulating them for their work, he said the victory today, he declared, will build a base for the general elections of 2014.

“Many people had said that the fate of the 2019 general election was decided when the 2017 UP election result was declared. All I can say is that the same thought applies now too… the 2024 general election result can be glimpsed in the result of the 2022 UP election,” PM Modi said, addressing the workers at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

The BJP’s performance in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur will give it a boost in the coming Rajya Sabha polls.

Pointing to the party’s spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi said this election has proved once again that there is no truth to the allegations of caste based politics in Uttar Pradesh.

“People keep insulting Uttar Pradesh by saying that in UP, only ‘jaatiwaad ki rajneeti (politics of caste)’ works,” PM Modi said.

“But since 2014 – in 2014, 2017, 2019 and now 2022 — the people have shown again and again that they vote only for vikaswaad ki rajneeti (Politics of progress and development). What more proof do these naysayers want – that UP votes for progress, not for caste,” he said.

The BJP – in a first in nearly 40 years – is winning two consecutive terms in the county’s most populous and politically significant state. Of UP’s 403 seats, the BJP is on way to win 270-plus seats — 48 below its 2017 score of 320-plus seats.
The party is set to win Manipur with 32 of the 60 seats and is cruising to a comfortable victory in Uttarakhand with 48 of 70 seats. In Goa, the BJP has touched the halfway mark of 20 seats and declared that it will form government in the coastal state with the support of three Independents.