Difficult for BJP to repeat its 2019 performance: Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said it would be difficult for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to repeat its electoral performance of 2019 as it has already peaked in many states, and there would be only a "downward slide" in the coming elections. The "complacency" of the BJP is the opposition's strength, he claimed.

Tharoor was speaking at ABP Network's 'Ideas of India Summit 3.0' on 'Collaborative Federalism: View of the States'. Participating in the session, BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said the target for his party in the coming Lok Sabha polls was 370 seats.

"They seem to think it is already a done deal and it isn't," Tharoor said, adding that there was a great deal of scepticism about whether the BJP would be able to come anywhere close to what it was projecting. "They peaked in 2019. We are going to see nothing but a downward slide. How much downhill that is going to be depends on how effective the opposition campaign is, which is just picking up."

In 2019, the BJP did "too well" across the Hindi heartland where it is strong, he said, noting that it won every seat in Haryana, Rajasthan, all but one seat in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and a large number of seats in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar. As a result, the saffron party's tally in the Lok Sabha rose to 303 in 2019.

"All of this is not going to happen this time because it is impossible for them to repeat those numbers," Tharoor claimed, and said the percentage of the BJP's votes may rise, but even if there is enthusiasm after the Ram Mandir consecration in Ayodhya, there are no more seats left to win in any of these places, and the story will vary from state to state.