PM Modi Expects Historical Victory Buoyed By People's Trust

"Today the country feels that there is a government which is concerned about our sorrows, which knows our dreams, and which always tries to enhance our strengths. There is trust in the government," he said in an exclusive interview with NDTV's editor-in-chief Sanjay Pugalia. "And that is why I say that Bharatiya Janata Party is going to set a historically huge record."

"Humara palra bhari hai," the Prime Minister said when asked about how he read the Lok Sabha 2024 election panning out. Moreover, Modi is confident of the National Democratic Alliance, of which the Bhartiya Janta Party is a part of, reaching the initially set target of 400 seats.

"If you look closely, the NDA is already near 400 seats. In the last election we got 300 plus on our own... This time come June 4, there will be history created," Modi said.

Results for the seven-phase general elections will be declared on June 4. Modi is looking to secure a third victory from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency, which will go to polls in the final phase on June 1.

Antique Broking projected the NDA to exceed its 2019 seat tally of 353 seats, but fall short of opinion poll expectations of 370-410 seats. While a drop in voter turnout may not affect the incumbent government, the opposition led by the Congress party may be impacted, the brokerage said, citing empirical analysis on voter turnout changes in 2019 and winning margin in 2014.

Taking aim at the opposition for not declaring their prime-ministerial candidate, Modi said voters focus on such matters.

In the past, Modi called the INDIA bloc "a divided house" with several leaders vying for the prime minister's office.

"You're going to give such a big country to someone (to rule), do you know them, do you know their name, do you know their experience, do you know their strengths? The people of this country consider these things. Whether a party declares the name of its leader or not, the people observe. And we have the upper hand, everybody will say this," he said.