Despite being in the power for two terms and facing the anti-incumbency associated with these long political runs, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is projected to reach 350 seats in the upcoming general elections with the BJP more or less maintaining the figure of 300 seats that it had got in the last elections.
These projections are based on the party’s internal assessment that has been seen by top party leaders who are devising parties election campaign.
While this assessment is below the 400 seats plus target that the NDA leaders have been talking about in the public domain and in political campaign, the fact that the BJP and the NDA are reaching the same figure that it got in the last elections, beating the associated anti-incumbency on multiple seats especially in the Hindi heartland states, is being seen as a huge achievement in the party circles.
This ‘impressive projections’, party leaders claim, have come, despite all the major opposition parties coming together to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the banner of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
This challenge, party leaders said, was not present in 2014 and 2019. In the last general elections, the BJP had won on 303 seats while the NDA had emerged victorious on 353 seats.
These projections were compiled before the starting of March and according to party leaders, the NDA will improve on this projection as it has got some more allies on its side since then.
These allies and the resultant seat distribution in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Punjab and the expected deal in Odisha are expected to push the party’s tally upward.
According to party leaders, they believe that the BJP’s tally will increase even more from this 300 seats projections as they are expecting to perform better than last time in South part of India.
On 15 March, the party’s most popular face, Modi embarked on a 5 days visit to across South India, covering the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Of the 130 Lok Sabha seats in South India, the BJP led NDA had won only on 30 seats in the 2019 polls out of which 25 was won in Karnataka and 4 in Telangana. It could not win on a single seat in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh.