Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday suggested that a third term for him was a foregone conclusion and claimed the BJP would alone win 370 seats and the NDA 400-plus, while delivering his last speech in the Lok Sabha before the general election.

He also launched yet another scornful attack on the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhis, specifically targeting Rahul Gandhi, the objective appearing to be to demoralise the Opposition before the polls.

“My third term is not very far away. It is just 100-125 days away and this time the entire country is saying 400-plus,” Modi said, turning his reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address into a full-blown election speech.

“I don’t usually get into numbers but given the mood of the country, the NDA will surely cross 400 seats and the BJP will definitely get 370 seats.”

He said his upcoming third term as Prime Minister would witness “very big decisions”.

“Aur hamara teesra karyakal bahut bade faislon wala hoga (And my third term will be one of very big decisions),” he said amid chants of “Modi, Modi” from BJP members.

Modi had begun his 100-minute speech by mocking the Opposition parties, saying they had “resolved” to remain in the Opposition for a long time.

“I appreciate the resolution the Opposition has taken. Their speeches have confirmed my — and the country’s — belief that they have resolved to stay there (in the Opposition) for a long time,” the Prime Minister said, as voices from the Opposition benches accused him of “arrogance”.

Mostly, he singled out the Congress for criticism. “For several decades you were sitting here (on the government benches), but now you have resolved to stay there (on the Opposition benches) for several decades,” he said.

Modi went on to predict that Congress leaders would be defeated and be “spotted in the visitors’ gallery (of Parliament)”.

He aimed a jab at Rahul without naming him, saying the Congress would have to shut shop soon because of its attempts to “launch the same product again and again”.

“The Congress had a good opportunity to play a good Opposition but failed in that role. There are other young people in the Opposition, but they were not allowed to speak out of fear that (they) may overshadow a particular person,” Modi said, taking another veiled dig at Rahul.

As Modi accused the Congress of “parivarvad” (dynastic rule), Trinamul member Sougata Roy flagged the elevation of the sons of home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh.

To this, Modi said he was not against one or even many people from a family coming into politics provided it was based on their talent and popular support, but he was against “family-run parties”.

“Parties being run by one family, all decisions being taken by the family, are a threat to democracy,” he said.

He accused former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi of having labelled Indians as a people “lazy and lacking in intelligence” and given to “complacency and hopelessness”.

“Let me read out what Nehru said from the Red Fort. He said: ‘Indians are not used to working hard. We don’t work as hard as people in Europe or Japan or China or Russia…’,” Modi said, drawing protests from Congress members.

Modi added: “So, Nehru was giving certificates to other countries while looking down on Indians. He thought Indians were lazy and lacking in intelligence.”

He quoted from one of Indira’s speeches claiming she had dubbed Indians “complacent with a defeatist attitude”.

“Today, looking at the Congress, I feel Indira was wrong about Indians but accurate about the Congress,” Modi quipped.

He accused the Congress of being an elitist party that looked down on the country’s poor: “The Congress never trusted India’s potential. They always considered themselves rulers and belittled the people.”

During the Prime Minister’s speech, Opposition members were repeatedly heard urging him to speak on Manipur and asking why he had not visited the troubled state. They also demanded that he speak on the Bilkis Bano episode but he ignored them and kept attacking the Congress.

On the allegation that the central probe agencies were targeting Opposition leaders alone, he said the drive against corruption would continue.

“People who have looted the country will not be spared. They will be made to return the money,” he said, disregarding the Opposition’s barbs about accused politicians joining the BJP and turning “clean”.

Modi claimed his first term had been devoted to filling the “pits” of the previous UPA government’s failures, and the second to lay the foundations for the country’s progress. He said his third would put the country on the path to becoming a developed nation by 2047.

“In my third term, India will become the third-largest economy and this is Modi’s guarantee,” he said.

He claimed the UPA had in its interim budget of 2014 said the country would become the third-largest economy over the next three decades.

“At the UPA’s pace, India would have become the third-largest in 2044,” Modi scoffed.

BJP members gave him a standing ovation, with chants of “Modi, Modi”, as he concluded his speech.