Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, the Thiruvananthapuram MP pointed out that the BJP has lost many states and was dusted in several byelections in different regions.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Conceding the dominance of BJP in the country’s political landscape, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has claimed that it is “conceivable” that the ruling party can lose “50 seats” in the Lok Sabha in the 2024 general elections.
It will be “impossible” for the BJP to replicate its 2019 electoral triumph in the next polls, Tharoor said on Friday.
Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, the Thiruvananthapuram MP pointed out that the BJP has lost many states and was dusted in several byelections in different regions. “If you look at how well they (the BJP) did in 2019, they have essentially had every seat in Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan; or all but one seat in Bihar, MP (Madhya Pradesh), Maharashtra; and 18 seats in West Bengal.
“Now, all of those results are impossible to replicate and the BJP dropping below the majority in 2024 is entirely possible,” Tharoor was quoted by media reports as arguing during a session titled ‘India@75: A walk through the Democratic Institutions.’
Terming the Pulwama attacks and the Balakot strike, which he said led to a “tremendous wave” at the last minute — a “freak” that won’t be repeated in 2024 — the senior politician said a drop of 50 seats for the BJP and gain for the opposition parties is entirely “conceivable”.
However, on the important question of whether the opposition parties, which Tharoor predicts will trump the BJP from its majority position, will stay together is something that he said is “impossible to answer”.
“If the BJP is at 250 and the others are at 290… will those 290 agree or would the BJP be able to pick 20 here and 10 there from parties that want favours from the central government of the day and then form the government. We don’t know,” he stated.
The BJP won 303 seats out of 543 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections while the Congress only managed 52.
He argued that with the sole exception of the “Communists and the BJP”, ironically on the polar end of the political spectrum, every party seems to have dynastic politics. “When we point the finger and say the ‘Congress dynasty’… you look around the country and what you see Mulayam Singh (Yadav) is succeeded by his son, Lalu Prasad Yadav is succeeded by his son, Karunanidhi is succeeded by his son, Bal Thackeray is succeeded by his son, Sharad Pawar… he is very much there but his heir apparent is his daughter and his nephew,” he added.
