Congress leader and incumbent MP of Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor claimed on Wednesday that the BJP will not be able to win 300 seats in the ensuing general elections and lose its majority in the Lok Sabha.
"I am 100 per cent sure that the BJP is not getting anywhere near 300. They are going to lose their majority. Even if they lose a handful of seats, they are coming down," the Congress leader said.
In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats in the Lok Sabha out of a possible 543 that are up for grabs. The total possible strength of the house is 545.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP managed to win 282 seats, marking an improvement in the next Lok Sabha polls.
Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his statement wherein he said that the Congress had adopted the 'loot' east policy while the BJP had turned it into the 'Act East' policy, Mr Tharoor said no loot is going on from the east.
"I don't think there was any looting going on from the east. The Look East Policy which was introduced by PM Narasimha Rao and continued thereafter. It was a policy that tried to look after the Southeast Asian countries, it was not a policy about our country. Look East and Act is about Southeast Asia, not about domestic Indian politics," he added.
Addressing a rally in Agartala, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday that Tripura has witnessed pioneering transformations under the BJP government. He also slammed the Congress, saying the party had adopted the 'loot' east policy while the BJP had turned it into the 'Act East' Policy.
PM Modi said that his government has decided to construct three crore new houses in India for the poor. "Tripura's people are going to benefit a great deal from it," he added.
He said his government is focusing on enhancing connectivity in the Northeast. He also said Rs 3,000 crore will be spent for the facelift of highways in the state.
Congress has re-nominated Shashi Tharoor for the Thiruvananthapuram seat, which he has been winning since 2009.
The BJP has fielded Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, while the CPM-led LDF has fielded CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran from the constituency, who had won it in 2005.
The BJP has never been able to win a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. In the Assembly polls, the party won only once from Nemam in Thiruvananthapuram district, where O Rajagopal had won in 2016.
In the 2019 polls, the BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan won 31.3 per cent votes, the highest among what the BJP got in the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
However, Chandrasekhar's plunge into the capital fray has turned it into a triangular affair, which will be one of the most watched battles in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, which are expected to be held in April-May this year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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