Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday predicted that BJP would not cross 220 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, as the party will not win more than 20 seats out of the 131 seats in South India.
“The Modi-led BJP will not cross 220 seats. It’s a simple calculation. The southern states including Lakshadweep have 131 seats. Of this, BJP might get up to 13-14 seats in Karnataka, 3-4 seats in Telangana, and perhaps one in Andhra. In all other states, it will draw a blank. So, BJP might not win more than 20 in Southern states,” said Reddy during a media interaction in Bengaluru.
“Of the remaining 42 seats, BJP is contesting only 300 seats as the remaining seats (100) will be fought by the NDA partners. Even if BJP wins as many as 70% of seats, it will translate to only 210 seats. Even in the states like Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, they can’t win more than 50% of seats,” he added.
Reddy, also contended that a third time for Modi seemed unlikely going by the past precedences when both Vajpayee (1997 and 1999) and Manmohan Singh (UPA I and II) governments had failed to win a hattrick.
“I believe every medicine comes with an expiry date never mind how good it is. Modi ji’s guarantee also has a warranty period. Modi will not appeal to the voters this time. In Telangana, when people told me that KCR had clout, I asked them not to worry. When an individual starts thinking he is bigger than the system, nature will cut him to size. Nature will always prevail. On the contrary. Leaders like Naveen Patnaik will prevail as they do not interfere in people’s lives,” said Reddy adding that BJP’s downfall would be its own doing.
Alleging that the BJP looked at every business as a “thief” and every political opponent as a “dacoit”, Reddy claimed that no department was free from the Modi government’s harassment. “BJP might be favouring one or two corporates just like how robbers spare the houses of their neighbours or relatives, but everyone is fed up with BJP.”
Drawing comparisons between the Telugu Desam Party led by Chandrababu Naidu in 2004 and the BJP under Modi, Reddy said, “In 2004, every TDP MLA worked hard to defeat MLAs of his party. Today, the BJP is also going through the same situation. I notice that every BJP MP candidate in Karnataka is toiling hard to defeat their party candidate. In BJP-ruled states, the infighting among former chief ministers and chief ministerial aspirants has reached a peak and Yogi Adityanath, Vasundhara Raje or the likes of Shivaraj Singh Chouhan are enough to defeat Modi. There is a local disconnect to Modi due to these factors.”
Responding to a query on the Congress prospects in Telangana, Reddy said his party would emerge as the no.1 party in the state.
“My target is to win 14 seats (out of 17). Our effort would be to restrict the BJP and reduce their current tally of four seats. BRS will not get a single seat. People think that a vote for BRS would serve no purpose as they are neither with the NDA nor with the INDIA bloc. The political space once occupied by BRS is being taken up by the BJP. But the BJP has no role in Telangana. They got only 13% votes in the December 2023 Assembly elections. While Khammam is a walkover seat for us, we are yet to finalise candidates for Karim Nagar and Hyderabad. BJP is polarising votes towards Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad by giving ticket to a Hindu though Muslims account for 40% of the population in the constituency,” explained Reddy.
Dubbing the BJP as “anti-South”, Reddy said the BJP in the South was not a national party but a “notional party”.
“BJP’s DNA is ‘anti-South’. BJP will never give representation to South or Telangana at the Centre. Whenever the Congress party has been in power, the power-sharing and profit-sharing among the states has been just. That’s how you see many people who occupied President’s post and other key posts were from South India,” said Reddy.
“Whenever the PM was from the North, the Congress ensured the President was from the South. The plum portfolios including Home, Defence and Finance or the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker have always been equally shared among the two regions. There was always a balance. In the Modi government, of the 70 BJP MPs from Karnataka and Telugu-speaking states, only two are cabinet ministers. There is clear discrimination,” he added.
Taking a dig at Modi’s anti-corruption plank Reddy said that Indian politics was at crucial a junction where the only agenda was whether Modi should be re-elected or defeated in the polls.
“The challenge before the INDIA bloc is to consolidate the negative votes against the BJP or Modi. BJP has left behind its ideology in the library and it is no longer in practice. Modi is talking about corruption while sharing the dais with Yediyurappa, his son Vijayendra, Raghavendra, Devegowda, Kumaraswamy and Janaradhan Reddy. Modi, in his speeches, says he will not spare the corrupt and will send them to jail. If he really sticks to his word, he will be sitting alone on the dais. From Himanta Biswas to Ajit Pawar, BJP has all the corrupt people with it now. If he keeps his word, he might find himself sitting alone on the dais,” said Reddy adding that BJP had become a den of the corrupt.
“BJP is scouting for the most corrupt from all the parties just like how IPL cricket franchises buy the best players during the IPL auction. The BJP does not want any corrupt man to remain in other parties,” he mocked.
