Won't be easy for BJP to repeat its 2019 poll performance, says Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said that the BJP will find it tough to repeat its electoral performance of 2019, as it has already peaked in many states.

Speaking at an event hosted by the ABP Network, Tharoor said the ‘complacency’ of the BJP was the strength of the Opposition. He said, “They peaked in 2019. We are going to see nothing but a downward slide. How much downhill that is going to be depends on how effective the Opposition campaign is, which is just picking up,” the Congress leader said.

The BJP did “too well” across the Hindi heartland in 2019, said Tharoor, noting that it won every seat in Haryana, Rajasthan, all but one seat in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and a large number of seats in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar. The saffron party’s tally in the Lok Sabha rose to 303 in 2019.

“All of this is not going to happen this time because it is impossible for them to repeat those numbers,” Tharoor stated. He opined that though the percentage of votes may rise for the BJP due to Ram temple factor, there are no more seats left to win in any of these places.

“They seem to think it is already a done deal and it isn’t,” Tharoor said, adding that there was a great deal of scepticism about whether the BJP would be able to come anywhere close to what it was projecting.

Tharoor’s statement was based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prediction that the BJP alone would cross the 370 mark in the LS polls. Modi said earlier, “I am sure that the BJP's lotus symbol will definitely cross the 370-mark on its own.”

The Election Commission is gearing up to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, with an announcement expected after March 13. ECI teams are currently on the ground, assessing the poll preparedness of various states, and are likely to conclude their assessment by March 13.