Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted massive gains for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in South and East - two regions where the saffron party has been struggling to increase its tally. Kishor believes that the BJP will be the number one party in Odisha, where Naveen Patnaik's BJD is the dominant force and has been ruling the state for over two decades. In Odisha, which has 21 Lok Sabha seats, the saffron party won 8 seats with 38.4 per cent of the votes. The BJD, on the other hand, bagged 12 seats with 42.8 per cent vote share. This time, the poll strategist has predicted the BJP will emerge as the single largest party in Odisha.
Kishor has also predicted a massive jump in BJP's vote share and seats in Congress-ruled Telangana. "They (BJP) will either be first or second party in Telangana which is a big thing. They will be number one in Odisha for sure," he said while speaking to the news agency PTI.
In the 2019 elections, the saffron party had won 4 seats with 19.65 per cent votes. K Chandrashekar Rao's BRS had won 9 seats, while Congress bagged 3 and AIMIM 1. In the assembly elections held last year, the BJP recorded 6.92 per cent jump in its vote share to nearly 14 per cent. The party won 8 seats, up by 7 seats from 1 in 2018.
In Telangana, the BRS is facing an existential crisis of sorts following its unexpected defeat in the Assembly elections and the exit of some top leaders. The arrest of party president and former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter Kavitha has added to its woes. BRS has seen the desertion of several senior leaders, including MPs and MLAs, to join either the Congress or BJP.
Rajya Sabha member K Keshav Rao, who was the party's face in Delhi, his daughter and Hyderabad Mayor Vijaya Laxmi R Gadwal, former deputy chief minister and MLAs Kadiam Srihari, Danam Nagender, MPs G Ranjit Reddy and BB Patil are some of the BRS leaders who resigned from the party.
For BJP, Telangana is the only state in the south, after Karnataka, where it sees the possibility to win a good number of seats. The saffron party is also making efforts to expand its footprint in Tamil Nadu. Prashant Kishor has predicted that In Tamil Nadu, BJP's vote share may hit double-digit percentage.
While Kishor did not throw any number for seats, the opinion polls have predicted 3-5 seats for the BJP in Tamil Nadu.
Besides these, the poll strategist has also forecast that the saffron party may throw the biggest surprise in West Bengal. He said BJP may become the largest party in Bengal, surpassing TMC. The BJP, which had won 18 of 42 seats in 2019, has set a target of winning 35 seats.