BJP leader says first Congress parliamentarian on Mumbai-Punjab train will be seen in Punjab
A tweet by a BJP legislator from Gujarat that made fun of the Congress losing territory after territory to the BJP received thousands of 'likes' and was re-tweeted as many times for painting a picture of what India's map looks like for the Congress.
"If you catch a train at Churchgate station and travel towards North... The first Congress MP you will find is in Punjab," Harsh Sanghavi, BJP legislator from Majura in Surat, tweeted on Thursday after trends showed the BJP winning a massive victory in the national election and taking more seats than it won in the last election in 2014.
Churchgate station is in south Mumbai, from where Arvind Ganpat Sawant of the BJP's cantankerous ally Shiv Sena won. The alliance took 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Mr Sanghavi was referring to the states - Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, where the Congress drew a blank in the national election - that his hypothetical train would be passing through as it chugged across the picturesque plains in the west coast towards north India.
Punjab, where the Congress won eight of the 13 seats and some 1,500 km from Churchgate, would be the first state on this train's route where a person would see the first Congress parliamentarian, so goes the tweet by the BJP leader, who on his Twitter profile says he's a "proud Indian dedicated to serve the society and public welfare".
"Congress-mukt central line and western line," Vedang Chauhan, a Twitter user, replied to the legislator's post. Another user, Manish Agarwal, added, "Is there any congress MP left in the route of bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai?"
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, in another reflection of the party's poor showing in the national election, lost to the BJP's Smriti Irani in his traditional stronghold Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. He won from Wayanad in Kerala.
Elections were held on 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats and a party or alliance needs 272 seats to form government.