Not only will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win all 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka this time, but will also win impressively in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh said in an exclusive interview to Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi on Friday.
Asked about the BJP’s election push in southern states, Rajnath Singh expressed confidence that the saffron party will majority of the 130 seats that the five southern states along with the Union Territory of Puducherry account for in the Lok Sabha. Winning a good chunk of the southern seats is crucial to the BJP’s target of 370 seats in the Lok Sabha.
“The BJP will win all 28 seats in Karnataka,” Singh said, adding that the party’s loss in 2023 Assembly elections will have no bearing on the Lok Sabha election results. “It’s not about Assembly elections or Lok Sabha elections. Last time too, Congress had won seats in Assembly elections but it was the BJP that won the Lok Sabha constituencies.”
The senior BJP leader also dismissed reports of rift in the Karnataka BJP. “There is no intra-party fight anywhere. This time, we have an alliance with the JDS too. Our position has strengthened in Karnataka.”
Asked about BJP’s prospects in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Singh said: “Not only will we open the account, but we will also get a good seat count in Tamil Nadu. I won’t comment on the number of seats, but it will be a good tally. We will open the account in Kerala too. This time, there will be no state where the BJP doesn’t open its account. We will do well in all states.”
The five southern states along with Puducherry, which has one constituency, account for 130 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats. Tamil Nadu has 39 seats in the Lower House of Parliament, while Karnataka has 28. Andhra Pradesh accounts for 25 seats in the Lok Sabha and Kerala for 20. Telangana sends 17 MPs to the Lower House.
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