Shashi Tharoor believes it is a distinct possibility that the BJP would lose its majority in 2024.
Senior Congress politician Shashi Tharoor says that it will be “difficult” for the BJP to win another election in 2024 like it did in 2019, and it is “possible” that the ruling party could lose “50 seats” in the Lok Sabha.
Even though he agrees that the BJP is the most powerful party, the lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram said at the Kerala Literature Festival on Friday that the party has lost a number of states and it is not impossible that they could lose control of the federal government.
“If you consider how well they (the BJP) performed in 2019, they essentially won every seat in Haryana, Gujarat, and Rajasthan; or all but one seat in Bihar, MP, and Maharashtra; and 18 seats in Bengal.
During a session titled ‘India@75: A Walk Through the Democratic Institutions,’ Tharoor claimed, “Now, it is hard to replicate such results, and the BJP falling below the majority in 2024 is entirely conceivable.”
The 66-year-old called the Pulwama attacks and the Balakot strike, which he said caused a “huge wave” at the last minute, a “freak” that won’t happen again in 2024. He also said that the BJP could lose 50 seats and the opposition parties could gain seats.
Still, he said it is “hard to tell” if the opposition parties, which Tharoor thinks would take the BJP’s place as the most powerful party, will stay together.
“If the BJP has 250 seats and the other parties have 290, will the 290 parties agree, or will the BJP be able to select 20 here and 10 there from parties that want favours from the central government of the day in order to create the government?” We have no idea,” he stated.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 303 of 543 seats, while the Congress won only 52.
Tharoor, while agreeing that dynasticism in a democracy is a “problem,” stated that those who single out his party should also look at the rest of the country while discussing the challenges India faces after 75 years of independence.
He said that, with the exception of the Communists and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), strangely on opposite ends of the political spectrum, every other party appears to be dominated by dynastic politics.
“When we raise the finger and say ‘Congress dynasty,’ you see Mulayam Singh (Yadav) is succeeded by his son, Lalu Prasad Yadav is succeeded by his son, his son succeeds Karunanidhi, Bal Thackeray is succeeded by his son, Sharad Pawar… “He is present, but his daughter and nephew are his apparent heirs,” he stated.
The Kerala Literature Festival is said to be one of the biggest literary events in Asia. It brings together a wide range of literary and cultural giants, such as Nobel laureates, Booker Prize-winning authors, senior politicians, historians, movie stars, diplomats, and artists.
Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka, Nobel laureates Ada Yonath and Abhijit Banerjee, American indologist Wendy Doniger, actor Kamal Haasan, children’s novelist Sudha Murty, and renowned vocalist Usha Uthup are on the roster of speakers.
