lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 31, 2019 23:49 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party will not be able to get more than 125 seats in the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11 and the anti-BJP front is going to form the next government, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee asserted on Sunday.

Addressing a massive rally to express solidarity with the Telugu Desam Party at Visakhapatnam, the Trinamool chief said the BJP, in the 2014 general elections, won just 21 seats in South India out of which 17 were from Karnataka.

“This time, it won’t be able to get even this figure. In the recent assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP put up a poor show and it will be reflected in the Lok Sabha elections. Even in Gujarat, the party’s number will come down. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP could get 73 out of 80 seats (in 2014) because of a split in anti-BJP votes by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. This time, the BJP won’t get more than 15 seats, as the SP and the BSP are fighting together. Over all, the tally of the BJP will not be more than 125 seats,” she said.

She challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a national level debate on the performance of the NDA government in the last five years. “We shall send our representative for the debate without any papers. Let Modi answer our queries without looking into papers or teleprompters,” she said.

Taking a jibe, the West Bengal chief minister said that the Prime Minister was afraid of facing the media. “The Prime Minister with 56-inch chest speaks 560 lies. You talk of corruption in every other state ruled by the opposition and engineer raids by the CBI, I-T and Enforcement Directorate. But you remain silent on the scams taking place in your own government like Rafale deal. Empty vessels make more sound,” she said.

Banerjee pointed out that a chaiwalah had now become a chowkidar, but he was not a watchman for the country but for looters and scamsters.

Describing the elections as special for the people of the country, the Bengal CM asked the people to exercise their vote cautiously. “We don’t want Modi. After elections, we shall sit and decide who would become the Prime Minister. Modi doesn’t have to bother about it,” she said.

Describing Chandrababu Naidu as ‘Desh ki netha’, she praised Naidu for doing a lot for the state and hoped that he would do even more in the coming years. If he becomes the CM again, he will do a lot and fight Delhi too”, she said. She felt there are a few leaders to stand firmly for the country.

Earlier, Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal called upon people to save the nation from Modi-Amit Shah duo. “If they come back to power, there will be no elections in the country for another 30 years, as they want to change the entire constitution,” he warned.

Calling the Modi government as the most corrupt government since Independence, Kejriwal said that demonetisation was the biggest scam played upon the poor of the nation. “The poison of communalism has actually done more damage to the fabric of the nation than Pakistan does,” he said.

TDP cheif Naidu said that Modi had betrayed the people of the state by not granting special category status. “He is a split personality. He does not do what he tells people and does not tell what he actually does,” Naidu said.

He explained the welfare and development schemes taken up by his government in the last five years and appealed to the people to bless him with another term.