May 02, 2024 03:00 PM IST
The Congress MP, who is contesting from Thiruvananathapuram, predicted a “very comfortable” win for himself.
That the BJP is losing its majority is a “foregone conclusion,” according to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who also claimed that things are “tremendously positive” for the Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc.
“I would say that right now, it looks increasingly likely that the BJP-NDA government will lose its majority. The BJP losing its majority seems to be a foregone conclusion. 190 seats (102 in phase 1 on April 19, 88 on April 26) have voted so far, and what I am picking up from my sources, it is tremendously positive for our side. We are not suggesting that there is an overwhelming wave but there certainly isn’t one for the government,” Tharoor told PTI in an exclusive interview.
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He added: “All indications are that this is really an uphill struggle for the BJP and things are not going the government’s way.”
The former Union minister also mocked the ruling party’s slogan of “400 paar,” calling it a “joke,” and said that going past 300 is “impossible” and even 200 may be a “challenge.”
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He also asked why a young man, who voted for the BJP in 2014 because he was promised a job, would still vote for it 10 years later, “when he still does not have a job.”
“When all the economists are saying that 80% of India’s population has seen a decline in its income in the last 10 years, why should that 80% vote for the BJP that has put them in that predicament?” Tharoor argued.
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On his own chances from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala – he made his electoral debut from the seat in 2009 and scored victories in 2014 and 2019 as well – the Congress leader predicted a “very comfortable” win.
Tharoor’s principal challenger from Thiruvananthapuram is Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP. All 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala polled on April 26, the second of the seven-phase general elections.
(With PTI inputs)
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