The Congress on Wednesday punctured holes into BJP’s grand slogan “Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar”, with party leader Shashi Tharoor pooh poohing it to be a complete ‘fantasy’ saying that even BJP strongholds have witnessed sharp drop in voting figures.
Addressing a press conference at the DPCC headquarters here, senior Congress leader Tharoor said, “I have had the opportunity to see and campaign in large parts of the country including Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and my own state Kerala. I have addressed rallies and given interviews”.
“I would say with some confidence that I am looking at the overall picture of the country with a great deal of self belief and confidence and the reason for this is both in common sense and in the trends we are seeing in the country in the course of the first few phases.
“When I say common sense it was already very clear when BJP started talking about Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar that this was a complete fantasy,” Tharoor added.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said that the Congress on the other hand, was doing significantly well than last time in Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and even Uttar Pradesh.
Thraoor, however, predicted that the news was not so good for the BJP and NDA in Bihar, West Bengal and in a couple of places in Gujarat.
He said, “Seeing the positive trends, our Atmavishwas (self confidence) has gone up even further and we are absolutely in a positive trajectory going into the last two weeks of the campaign”.
Tharoor, who will soon be seen campaigning for his good friend and Gurgaon Lok Sabha candidate Raj Babbar, said that the main purpose of this election was to change the government at the Centre.
The former Minister of State for External Affairs said that due to the Pulwama tragedy and the response in Balakot, the BJP could convert the 2019 election, “which should have been a referendum on the economic failures of the first term of Mr Modi” into a national security one maxed out in number of states.
He claimed that such results, however, are impossible to replicate now and the trends so far have shown that the BJP strongholds have shown minimal turnout and significant drop in voting figures.
On the other hand, Congress and INDIA bloc candidates have attracted enthusiasm and the voters were coming out in good numbers.
