Rishikesh (Uttarakhand):

As Uttarakhand prepares for the April 19 polls, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lashed out at the Congress and said the great old party only needs a small car vans to accommodate all MPs as the BJP will retain all five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand.

“They (Congress) should look at themselves, they have not found a candidate who can contest in Uttarakhand. Last time, they needed a bus (to accommodate Congress members), this time they only need a minivan,” Mr Dhami said while responding to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that the BJP had barely crossed 180 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

Mr Dhami arrived in Rishikesh on Wednesday to arrange a rally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. He also held a meeting with party workers there.

Talking further about the Prime Minister’s rally, Mr. Dhami said, “This will be a historic rally, look how excited people are. Whenever Prime Minister Modi asks anything from people across the country, people give it to him. Last time he If you ask for more than 300, this time it will be more than 400, and people will give it this time.”

Rishikesh falls under the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat and the BJP has fielded Trivendra Singh Rawat as its candidate.

Earlier, speaking to news agency ANI, Mr Rawat said his party may not be able to win 400 seats in the general election but will be close to its target.

“We may not win 400 seats as we said we would, but we will certainly win 389, 399 or even 404 seats in the coming election,” he said.

It is noteworthy that Uttarakhand contributed 5 seats to the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. The BJP has fielded Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Anil Baluni, Ajay Tamta, Ajay Bhatt and Trivendra Singh Rawat from the state.

Polling in Uttarakhand will be held in a phased manner on April 19.

Uttarakhand has been a hotly contested state between the BJP and the Congress. In the mega elections in 2014 and earlier in 2019, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Development Alliance secured victory in all Lok Sabha constituencies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)