‘BJP could become Bengal’s largest party’: Prashant Kishor’s big predictions for 2024

Prashant Kishor shares his poll predictions in an interview with PTI

New Delhi:

Poll strategist and Jan Suraj Party chief Prashant Kishore said the BJP is likely to emerge as the No. 1 party in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A big party. In an interview with Press Trust of India, Kishore said the BJP’s efforts over the years to expand its influence in southern and eastern India could pay dividends this time.

“You will be surprised because in my opinion the BJP is likely to become the number one party in West Bengal,” he said, adding that the BJP will also win the Lok Sabha seats in Odisha leading in statistics and becoming the first or second party in Congress-ruled Telangana state.

Interestingly, Mr Kishor had assisted Trinamool CEO Mamata Banerjee in contesting the 2021 Bengal polls and returned to power with a landslide victory.

Stressing that neither the BJP nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invincible, Kishore said the opposition had missed its chance.

Mr. Kishore said in multiple interviews that the PPP had managed to make up for setbacks it suffered in the east and south by winning majorities in the country’s north and west.

Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala occupy 204 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, but the BJP It could not cross 50 seats in these states either in 2014 or 2019.

Kishore said the BJP will feel the pressure only if the opposition parties, especially the Congress, can ensure that the BJP loses at least 100 seats in its strongholds in the north and west in the upcoming elections. He said it wasn’t going to happen. “Overall, the BJP will be able to hold its ground in these areas.”

On how the BJP is trying to strengthen its presence in eastern and southern states, he said the party’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, often visit these states. But he noted that opposition leaders have made little effort in the BJP’s strongholds.

“Count the number of visits by the Prime Minister to Tamil Nadu in the last five years and compare with the number of visits by Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi or any other opposition leader to the battleground state. Your battle is in the North states, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, “But you are visiting Manipur and Meghalaya. So how are you going to be successful,” he said.

On the opposition parties joining together to form the India Bloc, he said the alliance was neither desirable nor effective. He said the BJP won because political parties such as the Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD, NCP and Trinamool Congress were unable to deal with it head-on on their own turf. They have no narrative, face or agenda, he said.

Mr. Kishore, however, dismissed suggestions that three consecutive victories would pave the way for long-term rule by the BJP, pointing out that the Congress party’s decline began after its biggest victory in 1984.

He said that the BJP went through an electoral barren phase in 2015 and 2016 and lost multiple parliamentary elections, but the opposition missed the opportunity. He said the BJP almost lost power in Gujarat in 2018 and was defeated in several states, but the Congress “made mistakes” in the 2019 polls.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support ratings have declined in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the BJP has lost ground in Bengal. But he said the opposition leader was sitting in his own home, allowing the prime minister to make a comeback. “If you keep taking the ball, a batsman will score a century, especially if he is a good batsman,” Mr. Kishore said.

In Bengal, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections, coming in second place behind the Trinamool which won 22 seats. However, the Trinamool bounced back strongly in the 2021 state polls. The BJP is now trying to make significant inroads in Bengal, especially after the Sandesh Khali issue has become a key talking point in Bengal.