2014 general election
On 31 March 2013, Modi was appointed to the BJP Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the party.[142][143] On 9 June 2013, Modi was appointed Chairman of the BJP's Central Election Campaign Committee for the 2014 general election, at the national level executive meeting of BJP.[144] The party's senior leader and founding member Lal Krishna Advani resigned from all his posts at the party following the selection, protesting against leaders who were "concerned with their personal agendas"; the resignation was described by The Times of India as "a protest against Narendra Modi's elevation as the chairman of the party's election committee". However, Advani withdrew his resignation the next day at the urging of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.[145] In September 2013, BJP announced Modi as their prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.[146] Narendra Modi contested the election from two constituencies: Varanasi[147] andVadodara.[148] His candidacy was supported by spiritual leaders Ramdev and Morari Bapu,[149] and by economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, who have stated that they, "...are impressed by Modi's economics."[150] His detractors included Nobel Prize laureate economist Amartya Sen, who said that he did not want Modi as a Prime Minister because he had not done enough to make minorities feel safe, and that under Modi, Gujarat's record in health and education provision has been "pretty bad".[132]
During his campaign, Modi, pledged to speed government decision-making and remove bureaucratic hurdles that have slowed development.[151]Modi won from both seats he contested; defeating Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, in Varanasi and Madhusudan Mistry of the Indian National Congress in Vadodara (by a margin of 57 0,128 votes, the second highest ever).[152] He led the BJP-led NDA to a decisive victory in the general elections in which the ruling Indian National Congress suffered its worst ever defeat.[153][154][155] Modi was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP parliamentary party following his party's victory in the Indian parliamentary elections and was subsequently appointed the prime minister by India's president.[156][157] To comply with the rule that a MP can not hold two constituencies, Modi vacated the Vadodara seat.[158]
In "India's first social media election", Modi effectively used social media like Twitter, Facebook and Google in his campaign, besides Google Hangouts and holograms for campaign appearances. He even posted a selfie on Twitter and his victory tweet emerged as the most retweeted in India.[159]
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