Zee Media Bureau
Varanasi: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA`s thumping victory in 2014 General Elections, Narendra Modi, who is set to be the next prime minister, said this would be the first time in parliamentary history that the Opposition will have to form an alliance.
Taking a dig at Congress, referring to the fact none of the opposition parties had enough numbers for their leaders to be recognised as leader of opposition, Modi said, "Earlier the government used to in coalition but this would be the first time that an opposition will have to form a coalition."
"Normally coalitions are forged to form a government. But now, a coalition is being put together to form an opposition. People of the country have given a slap on their faces," he said in his thanksgiving speech on the banks of the Ganga river here.
Talking about himself, Modi said: "For the first time, the country has elected a PM who is born after Independence."
Modi was speaking at the Dashashwamedh Ghat where he offered prayer to the Ganges river and attended the sacred `Ganga Aarti`.
After months of a nerve-racking election campaign and the maddening deluge of supporters thereafter, India`s soon-to-be prime minister Narendra Modi spent the entire evening today propitiating gods here in the temple town of Varanasi.
After landing at the Babatpur airport, the BJP leader flew in a chopper to the reserve police line grounds from where his heavily guarded cavalcade drove to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
As he walked through the narrow lanes leading to the seat of Lord Shiva, Modi was surrounded by a battery of National Security Guard commandos and special troopers of the Uttar Pradesh Police`s anti-terrorist squad.
Accompanied by BJP president Rajnath Singh and close aide Amit Shah, Modi performed a 45-minute puja at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, one of the 12 `jyotirlingas` in the country.
Sitting cross-legged, the Gujarat chief minister performed the puja aided by 11 specially commissioned priests.
He asked the priests not to hurry and do the puja as per norms, a source inside the temple said.
Narendra Modi then performed the `jalabhishek` (offering of Ganga water on the gold plated Shiva linga) after which a concoction of honey, jaggery, crushed sugar, ghee, curd, milk and `bhasma` was offered to the reigning deity of Kashi.
He completed the puja by offering `bel patra` and lotus flowers, Subodh Shastri, a priest at the temple, IANS reported.
Chandan (sandalwood paste) was then smeared on his forehead and he was gifted a cloth and `rudraksha` as a memento from the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Modi left for the Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of the Ganga where he took part in the evening `Ganga Aarti` and spent more than 90 minutes at the banks of the river.
Sitting cross-legged, the Gujarat chief minister performed the puja aided by 11 specially commissioned priests.
He asked the priests not to hurry and do the puja as per norms, a source inside the temple said.
Narendra Modi then performed the `jalabhishek` (offering of Ganga water on the gold plated Shiva linga) after which a concoction of honey, jaggery, crushed sugar, ghee, curd, milk and `bhasma` was offered to the reigning deity of Kashi.
He completed the puja by offering `bel patra` and lotus flowers, Subodh Shastri, a priest at the temple, IANS reported.
Chandan (sandalwood paste) was then smeared on his forehead and he was gifted a cloth and `rudraksha` as a memento from the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Modi left for the Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of the Ganga where he took part in the evening `Ganga Aarti` and spent more than 90 minutes at the banks of the river.
With agency inputs
