BJP May Get 350 Seats On Its Own, 5 In Tamil Nadu”: Top Economist To NDTV

New Delhi: 

The BJP is likely to perform better this time than what it achieved in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a top economist and psephologist told NDTV today.

Surjit Bhalla, whose new book ‘How We Vote’ details the voter’s mindset, in an interview to NDTV said the BJP may get 330 to 350 seats.

“Based on statistical possibility, they should get 330 to 350 seats on their own. This is just the BJP, not including its alliance partners,” Mr Bhalla said, agreeing that the party whose campaign is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would likely see a 5 to 7 per cent rise in seats won compared to the 2019 results.

It can be a wave election. Every election has a potential (to be a wave). But it may not also be a wave election,” said the economist who has tracked elections in India for four decades.

For the Opposition Congress, Mr Bhalla said the party may get 44 seats, or 2 per cent less than what it won in the 2014 election, the year PM Modi became Prime Minister.

“The problem with the (Opposition) alliance is the leadership. The economy matters the most, the leadership matters second. And both of them are in favour of the BJP. If the Opposition had selected a leader who could have a mass appeal or approximating half the appeal that Prime Minister Modi has, then I think it could be a contest,” Mr Bhalla told NDTV.

He predicted the BJP would likely win at least five seats in Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has been traditionally a weak party. “I won’t be surprised if, of all the places, the BJP in Tamil Nadu gain over five seats. In Kerala, maybe one or two,” Mr Bhalla said.