A first... comes in the last

Prime Minister Narendra Modi created a flutter by arriving alongside BJP president Amit Shah and other party leaders for a press conference on Friday, to conclude the heated campaigning for General Election 2019.

It was the first formal press conference that PM Modi addressed in five years of the BJP's rule, at first startling the Opposition, especially Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has time and again criticised the premier for not holding press meetings.

But the Prime Minister did not break with his routine to interact with the media at his new conference. He did not take any questions and when pointedly asked, diverted them to Shah.

In his opening remarks, he took the opportunity to dwell on his achievements, starting with a tongue-in-cheek comment that exactly five years ago, "on May 17, 2014, the Satta Bazar's manipulators had to bear the biggest loss" for giving 150 seats to Congress and 218 to the BJP.

"It is happening after a long time that a government with full majority is returning to power once again with a majority. This is a big deal in itself," he said.

He said ensuring delivery to "the last man in the queue" was the biggest achievement of his government. "Such news does not bring TRP so you give it least time... but you should acknowledge that it required Herculean effort from the government — mobilising human resources and giving targets, the scale was huge," he told reporters.

Taking pride in the party's capability of drafting a campaign down to the last detail and delivering it with regimental discipline, he said, "My first rally was in Meerut where the first fight for independence began in 1857 and the last one was in Madhya Pradesh where Bheema Nayak, a tribal icon, fought agonist the British. We organise everything in detail."

After he finished speaking, Shah took questions from the media. On questions about Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao's meetings to evolve a federal front and on Rafale deal controversy, which were meant for PM Modi, Shah interjected, "It is not necessary for the PM to answer every question."

To questions on government formation, Shah gave the stock reply that he was sure the BJP would cross the 300-seat mark and would form the government with NDA allies, and others who agreed with the party's policies were free to join it even now.

"We are entirely sure we are going to win. These people don't have any work on the campaign trail so they are meeting in drawing rooms," he said, referring to meetings that Opposition parties are having, including one planned on May 23 by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

END OF THE ROAD FOR ELECTIONEERING

Prime Minister walks in along with BJP president at press conference but does not take questions 

• PM Modi flew 1.5 lakh km and addressed 142 public rallies during the most extensive campaign for a Lok Sabha election since Independence, Shah said
   
• He praised PM Modi for braving scorching temperatures which went up to 46 degrees Celsius during electioneering
   
• Shah said he himself visited 312 Lok Sabha constituencies and addressed 161 public rallies, claiming he travelled 1.58 lakh km and held 18 roadshows
   
• PM has never addressed a news conference in India, though he has given many one-on-one interviews to local media and once took questions from reporters in London in 2015
   
• The world’s biggest democratic exercise involving almost 90 crore voters ends on Sunday with polling in 59 parliamentary seats across eight states

"I am a disciplined soldier of the party. The president is everything to me... A government with full majority will come back after remaining in power for five years. This is probably happening after a very long time. This is a big deal in itself." 
— Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

"Since Independence, the most hardworking, extensive election campaign was this one and Modi’s outreach was unprecedented. There is hardly any part of the country Modi did not visit during the election campaign between February and May" 
— Amit Shah, BJP president