Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP-led NDA will form government again in 2024 and Narendra Modi will become prime minister for a third consecutive term. Participating in the "India Today Conclave" here, Shah also said ever since the Modi government came to power, issues related to three hotspots -- Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, and Naxal -- were by and large resolved. Since a surgical strike was carried out against terrorists inside Pakistan, no foreign power dared to interfere in the internal affairs of the country, the home minister said.
"People will decide who will be the next prime minister of the country. I have visited every part of the country and have realized that again the BJP will form the government and Modi will become the prime minister for a third consecutive term," he said. Shah said since the 1970s, this would be for the first time that a prime minister will get the people's mandate for the third consecutive term. Asked about the number of seats the NDA will get in the 2024 general elections, the minister said it would be more than in 2019. "We (the BJP) will get more than 303 seats," he said.
The BJP got 303 seats in the 2019 general elections and the NDA got over 350 seats out of the total 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. Shah said when the Modi government came to power for the first time in 2014, 60 crore people had no bank accounts, 10 crore people had no access to toilets, and three crore people had no electricity connections. The Modi government has given all of them access to banks, toilets, free food, electricity, and gas connections, he said. Not only that, externally, if there is a problem in the world, other leaders look towards Modi and what he thinks and what he believes, Shah said.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic was handled very efficiently by the Modi government and it successfully inoculated all citizens of the country. Asked about his role as Union home minister, Shah said he was satisfied that problems in three hotspots -- Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, and Naxal — were by and large resolved. There is a 70 percent drop in violence in Jammu and Kashmir, 60 percent less violence in Naxal-affected areas, and many insurgents have surrendered and peace agreements signed in the Northeast, he said.
Besides these, Shah said, under the Modi government, Article 370 was scrapped, the Ram temple is being built and issues related to the Triple Talaq resolved. Asked when elections could be held in Jammu and Kashmir, the home minister said the Election Commission (EC) will decide about it when it gets ready to conduct the polls. "When the EC will seek a report from the home ministry, we will provide it immediately," he said.
