At a time when the Congress is planning to contest less than 300 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to accommodate allies of the INDIA bloc, the BJP could contest well over 450 seats in the 2024 battle in its bid to further up its rally of 303 seats from 2019.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP contested 436 seats, won 303 seats and secured 22.9 crore votes with a 37.7 per cent vote share. The Congress, in 2019, had contested as many as 421 seats, polling around 11.94 crore votes. This time, the Grand Old Party is planning to focus on only about 290 seats. But the BJP could contest well over 450 seats, sources say.
This time, due to no alliance with JDU in Bihar, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in Maharashtra or with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu or the Akali Dal in Punjab, BJP is set to contest more seats in these states, and overall in Lok Sabha in 2024.
In 2019, BJP contested only 17 of 40 seats in Bihar, 25 of 48 seats in Maharashtra and five of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The JDU and Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray had contested a large number of seats in the alliance as part of NDA then. In Punjab too, BJP had contested only three of the 13 seats.
This time, the BJP wants to contest on a lion’s share of seats in these states.
BJP feels that given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and big deliverables like the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, and the development card, the party can easily surpass its 2019 tally of 303 seats.
With another tour to South India coming up later this week, PM Modi would have spent one week out of the first three weeks of 2024 in the South. This is a major push by the prime minister in South India ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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