Confident of bringing BJP below majority mark in Lok Sabha elections: Shashi Tharoor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Making a prediction on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said that he is confident that the INDIA bloc will bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) below the majority mark in upcoming polls.

"If we can unite constructively against the BJP in several seats, I'm very confident we can bring them down below the majority mark because, in 2019, they did so well that it'll be difficult for them to match that target. Congress got 0 seats in Haryana, 0 in Rajasthan, 1 in Madhya Pradesh, 1 in Bihar, and only 1 in Karnataka. There were several states where we did our worst-ever performance, and we are definitely going to do better this time in all those states...I am sure we will do very much better than 2019 in a number of states," Tharoor told ANI.

He further said that if the opposition comes together in Maharashtra, Bihar then we can bring BJP to a level where BJP's continuation of government will not be possible.

"That's the logical analysis. Ultimately, logic is not the whole answer. The people have to decide. In a democracy, we leave it to the people to vote and to do what's in the best interest of the country," he added.

When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Kerala he said that the PM's roadshow may become a success but that does not mean that anybody that reaches to the PM is going to vote for their party.

"I have often appreciated the fact that people make their real effort to communicate that every part of the country does matter and if the Prime Minister finds it useful to spend time in our state all of us Malayali should welcome that. I am not sure that Malayali voters even those who turn out to reach greet the Prime Minister will vote only on the basis of seeing a Prime Minister on the road. The road show might be a success but that doesn't mean that everybody who waves at PM is going to vote for him or his party," he added.

He further said that Kerala voters are educated voters, and they understand the ideologies of various communities, they are not going to be necessarily discourteous when the prime minister comes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Andhra Pradesh and Kerala on January 16 and 17, where he will inaugurate and dedicate several projects to the nation, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Sunday.

As the Lok Sabha elections draw near, India's political landscape is undergoing a significant reshuffling. The emerging INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) consortium is gearing up to challenge the established National Democratic Alliance, setting the stage for an electoral showdown.

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA won 353 seats, the UPA stood at 91, and Others won 98. The voting was staggered in seven phases between April 11 and May 19, in which around 67 per cent of the nearly 900 million eligible people exercised their franchise to elect 542 members of the Lok Sabha.