Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday highlighted the recently-held Lok Sabha polls in his address at an outreach session of the G7 summit in Italy and said the “blessings” that the people of India have given in the form of a historic win in the elections is a “victory of democracy” for the entire world.
“The blessings that the people of India have given in the form of this historic victory is a victory of democracy,” the PM said, adding that it is a “victory” for the entire democratic world.
“And just a few days after assuming office, I am extremely happy to be present among you, friends,” Modi further said.
“Last week, many of you friends were busy with the elections for the European Parliament. Some friends will be going through the excitement of the elections in the coming time. In India too, the election time was a few months ago,” Modi said, quoting some figures to underline the “speciality and vastness” of the Indian elections.
“More than 2,600 political parties, more than one million polling booths, more than five million electronic voting machines, 15 million polling staff, and approximately 970 million voters, out of which 640 million exercised their franchise. Completed by the ubiquitous use of technology, the electoral process has been made fair and transparent,” he added.
It was the biggest festival of democracy in the world and the history of humanity, Modi said. “It is also a living example of our ancient values as the mother of democracy. And, it is my good fortune that the people of India have given me the opportunity to serve them for the third consecutive time. This is the first time in India, in the last six decades, that this has happened,” he added.
Notably, in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the BJP with 240 seats fell short of a majority but the NDA secured the mandate with 293 seats. While the Congress and INDIA bloc got 99 and 234 seats respectively.
(With inputs from PTI)
