New Delhi: Dismissing his colleague Ram Madhav’s assessment that the BJP will need the support of allies to form government, senior leader P Muralidhar Rao says his party will get more than 280 seats while the NDA’s tally will be 300 plus.
Regional leaders like BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are irrelevant in the national context, the BJP’s national general secretary told PTI.
Taking a potshot at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao, he said everybody is thinking of becoming Prime Minister regardless of the numbers their parties might get in the elections.
Discussing Madhav’s comment in a recent interview that the BJP will require the support of allies to form the next government, he said, “My entire party does not agree with him. It is not me alone. My party president, my PM candidate and my party have expressed the opinions disagreeing… And I have also learnt that he has changed his view after his interview.”
Rao said the BJP has got a clear advantage and this perception has increased phase by phase. “So, in my view, we will either not be less than 300 (with NDA allies) or 280 plus on our own,” Rao said.
“We will be calling it NDA government. In 2014 also, we formed the NDA government but we had our own majority. So the same situation will continue,” he said.
Modi said in a rally in Bihar this week that the BJP will cross the 300 mark on its own.
According to Rao, the Congress and opposition parties have been unable to put up a united front to fight the BJP.
“Though they were desirous of giving a united fight, they could not translate it into action,” the senior party functionary said ahead of the last round of the seven-phase election 19 May.
To a question on the party’s probable tally in Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats, Rao said the BJP is seen as a party with a ‘Delhi advantage.’
“Because of this, people think Mayawati is no choice for Delhi. Akhilesh Yadav is no choice for Delhi. Even the voters of these parties think… why should we vote for this party when they are not relevant in the Delhi context,” he said.
Referring to the SP-BSP alliance in UP, Rao said their politics will not work in the state and the BJP will be able to improve its position in UP and the entire north India.
Reacting to KCR’s reported statement that the next prime minister should be from south India, Rao said everybody is thinking of becoming the Prime Minister, whether or not they have the numbers.
“When he (KCR) is saying so he must be having his own name (for becoming the PM). Mamata Banerjee is contesting 42 seats in Bengal… She is also available for PM. So everybody is thinking (of becoming the pm),” he said.