BJP may get 30 out of 42 LS seats in West Bengal: Vijayvargiya

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday said the party may end up getting 30 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, as there is a "severe undercurrent" in the ruling Trinamool Congress.

"We were expecting around 23 seats in West Bengal... now going by the current situation and the severe undercurrent in TMC, it seems even 30 seats are quite possible," Vijayvargiya told reporters at the party office here.

He claimed that many senior TMC leaders would join the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls, and that the state government would fall within six months.

"I think the backward counting has already started for the TMC... the lifespan of the Mamata Banerjee government will not last for more than six months," Vijayvargiya said.

Describing entire West Bengal as "sensitive", he said the BJP has urged the Election Commission to deploy central forces and install CCTVs in all booths of the state, for the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP national general secretary said if the EC does not deploy central forces in all the booths, impartial polling will be "next to impossible".

The party had also urged the commission to depute paramilitary forces in the polling stations in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Coochbehar and Alipurduar, which went to polls in the first phase on Apri 11, he said.

"I had a different idea about Bengal, but realised that even Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are peaceful states compared to it. And the same has happened with the EC officials, who are from outside the state.. They must have realised it by now," he added.