BJP lost 2018 MP Assembly polls due to overconfidence, will win 160-plus seats in 2023: Vijayvargiya

Overconfidence caused the Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the 2018 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said on Saturday.

He asserted that the BJP would win more than 160 seats in the 230-member Assembly in the year-end polls.

“I have said earlier too that we made a mistake last time and were overconfident. This time we are not overconfident. I am saying with guarantee that we will win more than 160 seats (in the 2023 polls),” he told reporters while detailing the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government’s achievements in power generation, infrastructure and other sectors.

After the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress formed a government under Kamal Nath but it fell in March 2020 due to the rebellion by MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia. It paved the way for the BJP to return to power under Chouhan.

Vijayvargiya categorically denied speculation of infighting in the BJP ahead of the state polls.

He asserted that 50,000 BJP workers from Indore division will attend the Vijay Sankalp Sammelan to be addressed by Union Home Minister and key party strategist Amit Shah on Sunday.

“In the past, attempts were made to mislead the public with bogus (polls) surveys. But during Shahs visit on Sunday, the message that will go across will leave no room for confusion about the Assembly poll results,” he said.

As part of his visit to MP over the weekend, Shah will interact with booth-level BJP workers in Indore for the first time before the upcoming state polls.

In Indore, the main political centre of the crucial Malwa-Nimar region which has 66 of the total 230 Assembly seats, Shah will interact with booth-level BJP workers.

Vijayvargiya (67) was on Saturday retained as the party’s national general secretary.

He said he had phoned party chief JP Nadda to thank him for the appointment.

In a lighter vein, Vijayvargiya said, “Nadda told me he wanted to make me something else, but for the time being it is fine that I continue as general secretary.” Nadda rejigged the list of the party’s central office-bearers on Saturday.

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