People Fighting This Election, There's Pro-Incumbency as BJP Has Best Performance Model: PM Modi in News18 Interview

The ongoing Lok Sabha elections are being fought by the people of the country who have made up their mind to elect a strong, stable, decisive and 400-seat-paar government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18.

“The ownership of this election is of the people. Which politician says what, why they say so… there is no importance to that. People have made up their mind. So this time, there will be a strong government, stable government, 400-paar government and a decisive government,” the Prime Minister said in the interview.

PM Modi further said the BJP’s performance model is seen as the best one by people and has led to “pro-incumbency” in his favour.

“I don’t work for elections. We have not won and come because we think how will the next government be formed, we think how the country will run for the next five years. My tapasya is for how this country should develop,” Modi said.

When asked if his popularity was at its peak, the PM said: “I don’t work for popularity and I don’t have any criteria to measure my popularity. One should analyse what I do and what others did earlier.”

He added that other governments operated by cutting ribbons, doing functions at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi, giving advertisements and doing media leaks. “They thought the country ran like that. The Congress worked on eliminating other parties. The country has seen the Congress model, Left model, the family dynasty party model, coalition government model and BJP government model. The best performance model is of the BJP,” the PM said in the News18 interview.

He said he has pro-incumbency in his favour as when the government performs, public confidence grows. “What is anti-incumbency? That my work did not get done… everyone’s works may not get done, but in a public meeting when I say that if you find anyone in kutcha house, send us details, people think. We have made 4 crore houses, in new term we will give 3 crore more houses. So public confidence grows that I am asking for votes but also promising more work to be done. When you make delivery, and that is why no one can compete with me, is my last-mile delivery and the way I make schemes. I want to make schemes that reach last mile and common man,” the Prime Minister said.

Explore in-depth coverage of Lok Sabha Election 2024 Schedule, Voter Turnout, Upcoming Phase And Much More At News18 Website