Taking a veiled dig at the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said if previous governments had worked honestly, then guarantees given by him would have been fulfilled 50 years ago.

“If those who ran governments for decades had worked honestly, then guarantees given by me would have been fulfilled 50 years ago,” Modi said addressing beneficiaries of the ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’.

Modi added that some political parties cannot understand the simple point that they can achieve nothing by making false announcements.

“Had the opposition parties kept the spirits of ‘Service Supreme’ instead of the spirits of political selfishness, a large population of the country would not have remained in poverty, troubles and sufferings,” the prime minister claimed.

Modi said the results of the recent state assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have made it clear that “there is strength in Modi’s guarantee only!”

“I am grateful to all the voters for their trust in Modi’s Guarantee!” the prime minister said.

The BJP ousted incumbent Congress from Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and retained Madhya Pradesh with a landslide victory. This led to the saffron party tightening its hold in the Hindi heartland and gave a big boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

With an absolute majority in the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly, the BJP won 54 seats while the Congress trailed at 35 seats. In Rajasthan, the saffron party won a total of 115 out of 199 seats. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP managed to stave off anti-incumbency after winning 163 seats in the 230-member assembly.

However, the BJP bagged only eight seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly as Congress won the southern state by ousting K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Revanth Reddy of the Congress took oath as the new chief minister of Telangana on Thursday.