BJP will be limited to 150 seats: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav addressed a joint press conference just before the first phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections.The show of unity before polling was not lost. Taking the attack on the BJP, Rahul Gandhi claimed on Wednesday that there was a strong undercurrent in favour of the Opposition INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha elections and that the BJP will be limited to 150 seats. “15-20 days ago I was thinking the BJP would win around 180 seats, but now I think they will get 150 seats. We are getting reports from every state that we are improving,” he said.

He maintained suspense over his contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and was non-committal when asked who the party would field against the BJP’s Smriti Irani. “This is BJP’s question, very good. Whatever order I will get, I will follow it. In our party, all these (selection of candidates) decisions are taken by the Congress Election Committee,” Mr Gandhi said when asked who the Congress will field from Amethi. He said that he was a “soldier of the party” and will abide by whatever decision the committee takes.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul claimed the electoral bonds scheme was the “biggest extortion scheme”. He said: “A few days ago, the Prime Minister gave a very long interview to ANI. It was scripted, but it was a flop show. The Prime Minister tried to explain electoral bonds in it. The Prime Minister said that the system of electoral bonds was brought for transparency, and to clean politics. If this is true, then why was that system cancelled by the Supreme Court? And second, if you wanted to bring transparency, why did you hide the names of those who gave money to the BJP? And why did you hide the dates on which they gave you the money?”

On the possibility of a joint manifesto of the INDIA alliance, Akhilesh Yadav said that the Congress manifesto has several measures to eradicate poverty. “All INDIA alliance partners are promising a guarantee of MSP. Poverty will start getting eradicated when the Government of India will increase the income of farmers.” Akhilesh said the alliance will fight for a caste census, social justice, and PDA, which will end poverty. Targeting the BJP over the electoral bonds scheme, Mr Yadav said the electoral bonds have exposed the BJP and the BJP has become a godown of all corrupt people. He further added: “PDA (pichhda, dalit, and alpsankhyak) will defeat the NDA (National Democratic Alliance)”. The SP chief went on to say that the INDIA alliance will “defeat the BJP from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur”. In Ghaziabad, the Congress is contesting with the support of the SP.

Eight seats of UP are going to the polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 19, and the campaign for these seats ended on Wednesday. As per the seat-sharing pact in UP, while the Congress is contesting 17 seats, the SP will fight 62 seats. The SP has also given one seat to the TMC.