Venkaiah: BJP won’t need post-poll support, including TMC

Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday claimed that the party would get over 250 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and would not need any post-poll support, including that of the Trinamool Congress.

“There is no question of seeking post-poll support. I don’t think there will be any need to take anybody’s support including that of the Trinamool Congress,” Mr. Naidu told a press conference in Kolkata.

The former BJP national president claimed that according to current projections, the saffron party alone would cross the 250 mark and would form the government at the Centre with its allies.

“Trinamool Congress feels that BJP is a threat and that is why it is attacking us,” he said when asked about TMC leadership led by party supremo Mamata Banerjee making vitriolic attacks against them at election rallies.

“The Congress will face its worst ever defeat and reach its lowest ebb of political existence. It will not be able to cross the double-digit figure,” Mr. Naidu claimed.

Regarding Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the BJP MP said “Madam, these efforts will boomerang on you. You should fight the elections on issues,” he said claiming that Ms. Gandhi, being frustrated with the poll scenario in the country, had gone to meet the Shahi Imam.

The BJP leader sought to dismiss a sting by Cobrapost on the Babri Masjid issue saying that it was quite evident from its timing that there was a ‘conspiracy. “You come out with something about an incident of 1992 just before the 2014 elections. It will backfire,” he said.

Naidu claimed that the Aam Admi Party was conspicuously “not saying anything on Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party and is solely targeting Narendra Modi.”

“AAP is like the B team of Congress party. It has lost credibility and become irrelevant and not in the reckoning at national level,” he claimed.

Taking on the Left parties, the BJP MP said “vote for the Left or the so-called Third Front parties will be a vote for instability and support to the Congress party.”

“It is no secret that the Left will again support the Congress,” he said referring to the Left Front’s support to the UPA I government in 2004.

Asked about Narendra Modi’s call to vote for him at political rallies while the stated position of the BJP was ’country first, party second and self last’, Mr. Naidu said “He is our prime ministerial candidate, so by saying that he is only asking for votes for BJP.”

Pointing at the media, he said “It is you who has made this a fashion. Do you say a Trinamool Congress government or do you term it as Mamata Banerjee government?

“But it is true that person has become important, one can’t deny that,” he said.

Asked about the BJP’s stand on Darjeeling statehood demand by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, whose support it has taken for its candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, he avoided a direct reply saying “When the manifesto of our party is released tomorrow, things will be clear.”