New Delhi, April 27
Dismissing the exit poll predictions of a hung Lok Sabha and a depleted strength for the NDA, the BJP today asserted that the NDA alliance would secure a “comfortable majority” and there was no need for it to even think of any new allies in the post-poll scenario.
“There is absolutely no need for us to think of any post-poll alliances. We are confident of getting a comfortable majority,” BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu told newspersons here after a review meeting attended by top party leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.
To a question whether the BJP-led NDA would consider going in for new allies if it failed to get a majority, Mr Naidu said “in politics, it is very difficult to talk of ‘ifs and buts’.”
However, when asked do you consider Samajwadi Party (SP) as untouchable, Mr Naidu said “we don’t believe in the philosophy of untouchability.”
Most of the exit polls yesterday predicted a hung Parliament with the race becoming tighter and the ruling coalition tipped to fall short of the majority by as many as 40 seats.
Asked what will be the final tally of the NDA, Mr Naidu said “the NDA will have three centuries, the BJP two centuries and the Congress no century.”
To a specific query as to why he was appealing to people to vote for the NDA when he was confident of 300 seats for the alliance, Mr Naidu quipped “in an exam, one has to study till the last minute. Like that, till last minute you have to make efforts.”
Mr Naidu said it was “comical” to see Congress leaders boasting that their party would form the next government. “It Appears that the Congress has still not been cured of its itch to claim a non-existent victory.”
Noting that in April 1999, the Congress leaders had claimed that they would form an alternative government “in five minutes”, he said later they had to sit on Opposition Benches for five years. Same would be their fate after the current elections, he added.
“Their self-delusion will no doubt take them back to their previous state of despondency on May 13,” Mr Naidu said.
Referring to exit poll predictions in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP President asserted that the Chandrababu-led TDP-BJP alliance will retain power in the state though the “contest has come closer”. In the Lok Sabha polls too the TDP-BJP will return good number of seats, he added.
He said the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu spoke to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Advani and him over the telephone during which he the expressed confidence of a renewed mandate in the state.
As regards Karnataka, Mr Naidu claimed that his party would form the government in the state which would be the first by the saffron party in the south.
