'Achha dekhten hain': Here's how Shashi Tharoor responded when asked about the third term for Narendra Modi

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who emerged victorious in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, dismissed claims that Caretaker Prime Minister Narendra Modi would take the oath for a third term on June 8. When asked about these reports, Tharoor humorously responded, "Acha, dekhten hai, Rashtrapati Bhavan ko bataya? Acha theek hai dekhten hai [We'll see, did he inform the President? Okay, we'll see]," during an interaction with news agency ANI on Wednesday.

These reports surfaced a day after the Election Commission announced the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. According to the results, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 240 seats, falling over 30 seats short of a majority. The Congress party won 99 seats. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) collectively won around 290 seats, while the Opposition's INDIA bloc secured approximately 230 seats. As of now, neither the NDA nor the INDIA bloc has staked a claim to form the government before President Droupadi Murmu.

Reflecting on his victory in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor remarked, “...I can say that the people have shown that they wanted change. I had clearly said that the exit polls were wrong..."

Exit polls conducted on June 1 had predicted a decisive majority for the BJP-led NDA, forecasting 350-370 seats for the NDA and 107-140 seats for the Opposition's INDIA bloc. However, the official results revealed that the BJP won 240 seats, and the NDA secured around 290 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Tharoor highlighted that the election results validated his on-ground observations, which starkly contrasted with the exit poll predictions. “Therefore, this result in many ways is a vindication of the kind of retail politics we did, talking to people and raising their issues," Tharoor told news agency PTI.

In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Tharoor defeated Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram. He arrived in Delhi on Wednesday ahead of a meeting with leaders of the INDIA bloc.