Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 11 claimed that the Congress will not win even 50 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and will not be able to get opposition party status after the polls.
Addressing an election rally in Phulbani in Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat in Odisha, he asserted that a “double engine” government will be formed in the state and “a son or daughter of the soil who understands Odia language and culture” will be made the chief minister of the BJP government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik are “two sides of the same coin”, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on May 11, accusing the BJP and the BJD of being “in cahoots” with each other.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Mr. Ramesh said the Odisha party has bailed out the Modi government on a number of occasions in Parliament.
Amid election season, Aam Aadmi Party Supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s absence from political centre stage for 50 days due to being lodged Tihar jail shaped the party’s campaign narrative centered around ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’. AAP’s campaign inadvertently focused on aspects of Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest the by the Enforcement Directorate.
AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “there are crores of people who were awaiting the release of Mr. Kejriwal. This release is a big game changer for the entirety of INDIA bloc. The biggest mistake by the BJP was his arrest in which’s aftermath, he dominated the narrative on issues of his arrest during the elections first, then related to insulin and his bail from Supreme Court across the country.”
In Himachal Pradesh, the ruling Congress party has sharpened its attack on the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), as both parties engage in a direct electoral battle in the hill State.
Hitting out at the BJP, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on May 10 accused the former Chief Minister and current Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur of indulging in politics of ‘regional bias’ and ‘corruption’ during the BJP regime.