Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday worked out a political ‘arithmetic’ to substantiate the saffron camp’s ‘400 paar’ claim amid the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The former diplomat said the BJP would surely win “356-357 seats” alone and form the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for a third straight term.
In an interview with Indian Express, Minister Hardeep Puri revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP‘s claim that the NDA would win over 400 seats was based on arithmetic the minister has adhered to since the 2019 Lok Sabha poll win.
When Puri was asked why the BJP is seeking “400 par” this time, the Union minister said that ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had asked him to “undertake a granular analysis of central schemes and the beneficiaries”.
Upon doing the same, Hardeep Puri concluded that there were “22 crore” beneficiaries. The BJP leader says, “And you know how many votes we got (in 2019)? 22 crore!”
“The number of beneficiaries is going to be much higher. I have been using the figure of 33 crore (beneficiaries). I’m convinced our count alone will increase by more than 15 per cent, i.e., 356-357 seats…” Hardeep Singh Puri told the daily during the interview.
Earlier this week, Hardeep Singh Puri claimed that India would become a developed economy in the next 10-15 years, “much ahead of the 2047” target.
“When Narendra Modi became the prime minister in 2014, the country was the 10th largest economy in the world and is now the fifth largest. In the next two years, it will attain the position of the world’s third-largest economy, surpassing Germany and Japan,” he said.
The minister has also talked about a ‘positive response’ from grounds in West Bengal, Punjab, and the South, dismissing a notion of angry farmers in Punjab and a losing foothold in southern states of India.
Hardeep Puri was declared one of the BJP’s 40-star campaigners for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
(For more excerpts from the interview with Hardeep Singh Puri click here)
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Published: 16 May 2024, 10:18 PM IST