The Shiv Sena on Tuesday expressed confidence that prime minister Narendra Modi would be elected for a second term and praised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for their "hard work."
An editorial in Shiv Sena party mouthpiece Saamana said the Congress will get enough seats to bag the leader of opposition's post in the new Lok Sabha.
"They worked hard. The Congress will be successful as a strong opposition party," it said.
"In 2014, Rahul Gandhi could not win (enough) seats to get the leader of opposition's post. This time, the Congress will have a leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. This will surely be Rahul Gandhi's success," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.
Elections ended on Sunday (19) and counting of votes is scheduled for Thursday (23).
According to most exit polls, the BJP-led NDA would get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.
"There was no need for political pundits to say the Modi government will be re-elected. The ground situation was such that people were leading the poll campaign and had made up their mind to vote Modi back to power," the Sena said in Saamana.
The editorial also predicted a clear lead in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and also in West Bengal, where the TMC is in power.
"In Maharashtra, the Sena-BJP alliance will register a historic win," the Marathi daily claimed.
