At NDA meet, Modi admits he's capable of making mistakes

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday declared that it brought him “immense joy” to bring together 38 alliance partners for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), calling it a “time-tested” alliance.

However, it wasn’t lost on observers that it was mostly a gathering of minnows. The only major players present apart from the BJP were the Shiv Sena (Shinde), NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), AIADMK.

In fact, eight of the parties have no MPs, nine parties have an MP each and another three parties have two MPs each. On the day, Modi tried to strike an optimistic yet humble note, saying he is capable of making mistakes.

“I can make mistakes but I will not do anything with ill intention,” he told his coalition partners.

“Due to the existence of a stable government, respect for India has increased on the world stage,” he added.

Among the attendees were BJP president JP Nadda, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, AIADMK leader K Palaniswami and Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio. The PM attacked the Congress over unstable coalition governments of the past and “establishing a high command over the PM.”

“Although BJP got a majority on its own in 2014 and 2019, it was the NDA coalition which formed the government. There is no party small or big in NDA,” he said.

This is the first NDA meeting in the lead up to the Lok Sabha polls. On the same day, the Opposition, in its second meeting made significant strides in establishing an understanding between each other.

Old video of Modi telling ‘Vote for India’ goes viral

With the Opposition naming its alliance INDIA, people across party lines have been directing taunts at each other.

While BJP spokespersons chose to give the development a nativist spin, bringing about a difference between India and ‘Bharat’, supporters of the Opposition pointed out that Narendra Modi in the leadup to 2014 had used “vote for India” as a slogan to gather support for the BJP.

In the video, Modi can be heard telling a crowd: “I would like you to repeat vote for India.