Poll mood spills into Lok Sabha, PM hailed with 'Jai Shri Ram'

A spillover of the mood of recent assembly elections was visible in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a grand welcome by the BJP members amid slogans of "Jai Shri Ram" and "Modi Modi".

Soon after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan mourned the death of former member B.V.N. Reddy and Question Hour began, Modi walked into the House, along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and BJP's Chief Whip Rakesh Singh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members welcomed him by thumping the desks for a good two minutes. Some of them shouted "Jai Shri Ram", while a few chanted "Modi Modi" as tribute to the BJP's wins in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The Prime Minister stayed in the House only for a few minutes.

The BJP and its ally Apana Dal (Soneylal) won a whopping 321 seats out of 403 in Uttar Pradesh and 57 seats out of 70 in Uttarakhand. The party also formed governments in Goa and Manipur, even though they were the runners-up in both states.

Later, as the lower House took up a debate on the demands for grant for the Railway Ministry, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav was interrupted, with some treasury bench MPs pointing out at Samajwadi Party (SP)'s loss in the Uttar Pradesh election.

A visibly irritated Yadav responded immediately saying: "If we have lost, we have accepted it."

"Because we got defeated (in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls) it does not mean we will stop speaking," said Yadav, who is the nephew of SP chief Mulayam Singh and an MP from Badaun in the state.

Congress MP from Manipur Thokchom Meinya, meanwhile, used his turn to speak on the demands for grant for the Railway Ministry to raise the issue of BJP forming government in Manipur, with Congress, which was the single largest party, being overlooked.

"Runners-up are given winner's trophy. It can be termed as another big reform in Indian democracy," Meinya said taking a dig at the government.

He however immediately changed the topic and started speaking on the Railway Ministry grant issue.

--IANS

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