New Delhi: 'Ab ki baar, 400 paar finally happened but in another country,' Thiruvananthapuram MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Friday while taking a swipe at the BJP after the Labour Party in the UK secured a landslide victory in the general elections.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, BJP leaders had predicted that it would get more than 370 seats while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would be "400 paar". In the polls that concluded last month, the BJP won 240 seats and fell short of a majority but the NDA secured the mandate with 293 seats.
The Congress bagged 99 seats while the INDIA bloc got 234. Following the polls, two Independent MPs pledged support to the Congress, taking the INDIA bloc's tally to 236. In a post on X, Tharoor said, "Finally 'ab ki baar 400 paar' happened -- but in another country!"
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that amid the tectonic transition in the UK, it was worth recalling the political events that unfolded in India a month ago.
"A self-declared non-biological person did not get elected by his party MPs as their leader but instead got himself anointed as the leader of an alliance. A circumvention of all parliamentary norms, all in a vain attempt to save face after being hugely diminished and damaged after the elections, and suffering a decisive personal, political and moral defeat," Ramesh said.
On Friday, Keir Starmer became the UK's new prime minister and vowed to rebuild Britain, hours after his Labour Party secured a landslide victory in a general election in which the weary voters inflicted a "sobering verdict" on Rishi Sunak-led Conservatives.
The Labour Party secured 412 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, up 211 from the 2019 elections. Sunak's Conservatives won just 121 seats, down 250 from 2019. While the Labour had a vote share of 33.7 per cent the Conservatives had 23.7 per cent.
(With PTI inputs.)