NEW DELHI: On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his Council of Ministers that the 2019 Lok Sabha poll was like a ''pilgrimage'' for him. While addressing a meeting of the Union Council of Minister, the PM made this remark in the national capital, which was followed by a dinner hosted by Bhartiya Janta party President Amit Shah for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies.

also read: Mamata Banerjee will kill BJP’s Barrackpore candidate Arjun Singh: Kailash Vijayvargiya

Addressing the news reporters later, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, on behalf of the PM Modi, said, ''the PM has seen many elections but this election's campaign did not seem like a campaign. He said it was like a pilgrimage for him." "Terming the completion of the NDA government`s tenure as a successful experiment, PM Modi said the alliance should be further strengthened," he further said.

PM Modi earlier met and congratulated the members of his Council of Ministers for successfully working as a ''team for the last five years.''

The 2-hour long meeting was attended by all the ministers, who on their part congratulated PM Narendra Modi for the development works that the government did in the last five years under his leadership.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Transport Nitin Gadkari, Human Resources Minister Prakash Javadekar, MoS (PMO) Jitender Singh and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, BJP President Amit Shah, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Gangwar, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are among those present in the meeting.

On her turn, Union Minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur said, "We are 110 percent forming the next government. The opposition is staring at their defeat." Referring to the allegations about problems in EVMs, the Union minister said, "When they won the Assembly polls in three states, EVMs were good for them but when the exit polls have shown their defeat, they have started blaming EVMs."

Union Minister Giriraj Singh sought an apology from the Opposition leaders for making baseless allegations against PM Modi. "Opposition parties should apologize to the public for their baseless allegations. They have won elections when it was conducted by EVMs in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Delhi," he said.

also read: Accept defeat with grace: BJP leader tells the opposition