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Absolute majority in kitty after phase 6, will cross 300-seat mark: Amit Shah

As the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections draw to a close, BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday exuded confidence about the party getting absolute majority in the House of 543 members when the votes are counted on May 23.

Putting a number to his assessment of the Lok Sabha election results, the BJP chief said: “I have travelled the whole country, gauged the mood… after phase 5 and 6, the BJP has got the absolute majority and after phase 7 we will definitely cross the 300 mark.”

Shah was speaking at a press conference in Delhi called to give details of the violence during his roadshow in West Bengal on Tuesday. The BJP chief said that the state CM Mamata Banerjee was rattled by this public mood and was thus resorting to violence.

In the 2014 general elections, the BJP alone won 282 seats, becoming the first party in 30 years to gain a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own. The NDA emerged from those elections with 336 seats.

Several BJP leaders have been expressing the view that the party would win 300 seats in the ongoing elections with the PM himself saying he had no doubt that the BJP would cross the 300 mark.

“The BJP alone is getting 300 seats while NDA is getting 350 plus seats after the sixth phase of elections,” senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said recently.

But the BJP allies seem to disagree. Naresh Gujral, the Rajya Sabha MP of Shiromani Akali Dal — one of the oldest allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party — feel the saffron party is likely to fall short of absolute majority.

“The BJP may fall short of absolute majority but a stable coalition government will be formed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in which all allies will get a true representation in the cabinet as per their seat number,” said Gujral in Jalandhar.

Another ally Shiv Sena also expressed a similar view. “The National Democratic Alliance will form the government with the BJP as the single-largest party, but it will be somewhat difficult for the BJP to win 280-plus votes,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told a TV channel.

First Published:
May 15, 2019 13:34 IST

Source: HindustanTimes