"We Will Get More Seats Than Congress In 5 States In South": Amit Shah

Exuding confidence of the BJP-led NDA winning over 400 seats in Lok Sabha polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the Bharatiya Janata Party will win more seats than Congress in five southern states.

Amit Shah, who held a roadshow in Haveri, pointed to the large presence of people and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has huge public support and BJP will sweep Haveri and Karnataka.

"We will get more seats than Congress in the five states in South India," Mr Shah said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

Asked about Congress claims that the BJP will be wiped out in South India and will be reduced to half in the northern states, Amit Shah said the BJP is concretely moving towards its aim of over 400 seats for the party-led National Democratic Alliance. "We will achieve it," he said.

Several Congress leaders have claimed that BJP will lose a large number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls and have repeated their slogan "South me saaf, North me half" for the prospects of the ruling party at the Centre.

Congress won assembly polls in Karnataka and Telangana last year and the party is hoping to do well in the two states.

Hitting out at Congress, Amit Shah said that the Congress party is "desperate" because PM Modi's words about Congress' manifesto are resonating with people.

"What Congress has said in its manifesto, PM Modi is only presenting that to the public in easy language. Since it is clicking with people, Congress is desperate," the Home Minister said.

He slammed Congress over its allegations that BJP will "throw away" the constitution if it comes to power and said the opposition party is scared and is "misleading" people.

"Rahul Gandhi is lying. We have had the majority for 10 years now. What did we do to the Constitution? We utilised our majority in scrapping Article 370 and Triple Talaq, and in strengthening the country. BJP has majority for the past 10 years. 

He is scared of the '400 paar' slogan and is, therefore, misleading people," he stated.

The Home Minister stressed that the BJP won't touch the issue of reservations for weaker sections. He slammed Congress over "deep fake" videos of his speech having been shared and said it is being done in "desperation".

"Public knows and understands everything...For 16 years (1998-2004 and 2014-2024), we didn't touch reservations. We don't want to touch it. They (Congress) are desperate so they edited my video and attempted to wrongfully present it to the people," Amit Shah said.
"They are desperate and are fearing their defeat. So, they are promoting deepfake videos," he added.

Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats and elections in the state are being held in two phases. Voting for 14 seats concluded on April 26 and the remaining 14 seats will undergo polling on May 7. The counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.

In 2019, BJP almost swept the state by winning 25 out of 28 seats, while Congress and JD-S -- who were running a coalition government in the state -- could only win one seat each.

This time BJP and JD-S are in coalition with the former fighting on 25 seats, while the latter contesting three seats.

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