New Delhi:

Political strategist Prashant Kishore confirmed the BJP’s claims and said the ruling party will significantly increase its seats and vote share in southern and eastern India, which have almost zero seats and vote share, but Except Karnataka.

In an interaction with PTI Editors, Mr. Kishore also said that despite the clear dominance of the BJP, neither the party nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi were invincible, pointing out that the opposition had three unique There were real opportunities to stop the BJP from getting stronger, but they were squandered because of laziness and wrong strategy.

“They (BJP) will be the first or second party in Telangana and that is a big thing. They will definitely become the first party in Odisha. You will be surprised because in my It seems likely that the BJP will become the largest party in West Bengal,” he said. In Tamil Nadu, the BJP’s vote share is likely to reach double digits, he said.

Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala together occupy 204 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, but the people of India The party could not get 50 seats in all these states in 2014 or 2019. Won 29 and 47 constituencies respectively.

However, he insisted that the BJP was unlikely to win 370 seats, the target it had set for the polls. In Andhra Pradesh, where the assembly polls will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections, he said Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy would find it “very difficult” to return. Kishore had worked for Reddy in 2019 when his YSRC party defeated the incumbent Telugu Desam Party, which is now an ally of the BJP.

Mr. Reddy, like former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, has gone into “provider” mode to the electorate rather than being the implementer of people’s aspirations. He compared the situation to monarchs of the past who relied on handouts and generosity to take care of their people and nothing more.

Likewise, Mr Reddy ensured cash transfers to people but did little to provide employment opportunities or boost the state’s stalled development, he said.

Referring to the Lok Sabha polls starting on April 19, he said the BJP can only win if the opposition, especially the Congress, can ensure that the BJP loses at least about 100 seats in its strongholds in northern and western India. You will feel the pressure. He said it wasn’t going to happen.

“By and large, the BJP will be able to hold its ground in these areas,” he said.

The BJP has pushed hard for years to expand in southern and eastern India, with top leaders such as Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah regularly visiting the states. The opposition, on the other hand, has made little effort in these states.

“Count the number of Prime Minister’s visits to Tamil Nadu in the last five years, versus the number of visits by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi or any other opposition leader to battleground states. Your battle is in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, but “you are visiting Manipur and Meghalaya. So how will you achieve success,” he said, apparently taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi was reportedly reluctant to contest from his family’s Amethi district after losing the seat to Smriti Irani in 2019, when asked about his Commenting on this, he said the opposition cannot win the state by winning Kerala alone.

Prashant Kishore said: “If you don’t win in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, then there is no benefit even if you win from Wayanad. Strategically, I can say, Letting this space (Amethi) disappear will only send the wrong message.” In 2014, Modi chose to contest from Uttar Pradesh in addition to his home state of Gujarat, “because unless you win in the Hindi heartland or in the Hindi heartland Have significant influence, otherwise you cannot win India.”

He said that with opposition parties uniting to form the Bloc India to fight the BJP, alliances were neither desirable nor effective to defeat the ruling party as nearly 350 seats already had one-to-one contests.

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, rejected suggestions that a third consecutive victory would clear the way for the BJP to rule for a long time, pointing out that the Congress party began its decline after its biggest victory in 1984 and has been unable to come to power since. its.

“This is a big illusion,” he said of the BJP’s unstoppable advance under Modi, while noting that the opposition, especially the Congress, had been at a disadvantage whenever the ruling party was at a disadvantage after 2014. , failed to take advantage of this opportunity.

He said that the BJP went through a long period of electoral defeat in 2015 and 2016. Except for Assam, the BJP lost several parliamentary elections, but the opposition allowed it to make a comeback.

After winning the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2017, the party again underperformed after demonetisation, when it almost lost power in Gujarat and was defeated in several states in 2018, but the Congress failed to do so in 2019 “Mistakes” in Lok Sabha polls.

After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, Prime Minister Modi’s support dropped and the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a disastrous defeat in West Bengal. He said the opposition leaders did not raise any challenge but sat at home and allowed the Prime Minister to make a political comeback.

“If you keep taking the ball, a batsman will score a century, especially if he is a good batsman,” Mr. Kishore said.

As a political observer, he is more concerned about the post-poll scenario, what will happen if Prime Minister Modi is given a major mandate again, especially since the Prime Minister has often talked about “big decisions” to be taken in his third term. .

He said that while supporters of the BJP were happy about the “fundamental changes” that were coming, those who opposed the party on ideological or other grounds were worried about whether major decisions would adversely affect the constitution or democracy. Intermediaries are also genuinely concerned, he said.

Since 2014, Prashant Kishor has worked for many major political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and District Governors with varying ideologies but since October 2022 Since then, he has been committed to the Jan Suraj Yatra in his home state of Bihar, with the stated goal of ushering in a new era of politics in the state.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)