Lok Sabha elections: BJP won't get more than 100 seats, says Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday her party would form the government at the Centre after the results for the Lok Sabha election were announced on May 23. The TMC chief claimed the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) would not get more than 100 seats.

“Bengal will have to show the way forward. Everyone is afraid and keeping quiet. But, Bengalis cannot be intimidated. The TMC will form the government in New Delhi with your (people’s) blessings. We will take all political parties that want a united India alongside us,” she said at a rally in the Balurghat constituency. Banerjee was campaigning for her candidate, Arpita Ghosh. 

She said: “After snatching money from the people, the BJP is bribing people to win the election”.

Banerjee said the BJP would be considerably weakened in major states, which send a substantial number of MPs to the Lok Sabha. It would fall short of posting the minimum required majority to form a government, she added.

“The BJP knows that it will be defeated in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Kerala, and West Bengal. They will not get a single seat. In Uttar Pradesh, their seats are declining fast and Mayawati and Akhilesh (Yadav) will get these seats. For Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and UP combined, I doubt if they (BJP) will get even 13. It will lose seats in Bihar also,” she added. 

The Congress has failed to conclude any seat-sharing agreements in major states. However, the TMC, the BSP, the Samajwadi Party and other Opposition parties have reached agreements to unify for a single Opposition candidate.

The TMC has been extremely vocal about the NDA government’s initiatives, criticising moves like demonetisation and the implementation of the goods and services tax. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently called Banerjee “Bengal’s speed breaker” as he alleged that people in Bengal could not access several schemes of the central government, which might have benefited them.