Thankful to Congress for letting me expose Oppn's hollowness: PM on no-trust motion

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a jibe at the Congress over the no-confidence motion against his government, saying he was "thankful" to the party for allowing him to expose the opposition's hollowness and inform the masses about his dispensation's successes.

Modi said at a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentary meeting that the motion in the Lok Sabha showed the opposition's political immaturity as his government neither lacked numbers nor faced any hostile political environment in the country, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters.

He was also felicitated on the occasion for the government's "grand win" during a division of votes on the motion.

A source quoting Modi said the prime minister offered badhai (congratulations) to party members and allies for the motion's defeat and double badhai to those who brought it.

The government got a platform to share the successes of its four and a half years rule with people far and wide, and also to expose the opposition, he said.

The Indian diaspora at Uganda, an African country he visited recently, had also keenly followed the debate on the motion.

Taking a dig at the Congress, which had brought in a no-confidence motion of its own before the speaker decided to take up the Telugu Desam Party's motion as it was first to be listed, Modi said no mature political party would have made such a mistake.

Now to cover up for this, it is raising irrelevant issues, he said, apparently referring to the Congress' attack on the government over the Rafale deal.

The meeting also saw top party leaders, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Sushma Swaraj, besides BJP president Amit Shah felicitating the prime minister and expressing their views.

Shah said there was no reason for the opposition to sponsor such a motion, which was comprehensively defeated with 326 members voting against it and only 126 supporting.

Swaraj made a reference to the wide margin to attack the opposition, while Gadkari said it was spreading confusion over a host of issues among the masses as it lacked a real agenda.

The prime minister said members of the BJP and its allies should also be felicitated for the win.

He also praised Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's speech on the motion and asked party members to take it to the masses, Kumar said.