Kolkata, April 25 (IANS) West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Thursday said his party will emerge victorious in seven to eight of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in which polling has been completed in the state, but where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress may not be able to open its account.
"Polling has been completed in 10 seats in Bengal so far and according to our estimation we are ahead in most of them. We will win in at least seven-eight seats out of 10," Ghosh told the reporters here.
"The Chief Minister is talking about winning 42 out of 42 seats here. But I doubt whether her party will be able to open its account in these 10 seats. Their scorecard is still empty.
"They are not in a position to a single of these seats. In order to boost the morale of her party cadre, she is claiming that Trinamool will win in all 10 seats. But the reality is something else," he said.
Ghosh, who is also the party's candidate for the Medinipur Lok Sabha seat, claimed that people of Bengal are giving out a clear message of impending political change - "paribartan" - with many of Banerjee's rallies failing to attract crowds, while there is massive attendance in the rallies in the state held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
"The Chief Minister is forced to take out road shows as there is no crowd in her public meetings anywhere. On the other hand, the public rallies of Modi and Amit Shah are witnessing unprecedented gatherings. People of Bengal are giving a clear message that political change is coming," the BJP leader said.
"We have promised to win at least 23 seats from Bengal. We will surely achieve that target. There is an attempt by the state ruling party to intimidate voters. But in the coming phases Central forces will be deployed in all polling booths to ensure free and fair polls," he noted.
Ghosh also said that following its impressive performance in the state rural body elections last year, the saffron party is confident of doing well in the seats of north Bengal and in the Jangalmahal area, while they are also hopeful of winning some seats in the Trinamool stronghold of south Bengal by riding on the "Modi wave".
"There is a Modi wave across the country. Bengal is also not an exception. People are coming out in massive numbers and expressing their support towards us.
"In the last assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee had said she is the candidate in all 294 assembly seats in Bengal. If that could have worked for her, the same will happen for BJP as this is an election to re-elect Modi ji as our Prime Minister," Ghosh said.
When asked about Modi's earlier comment regarding the Bengal Chief Minister sending her gifts and sweets every year, Ghosh said he is supportive of Banerjee's actions.
"I think the Chief Minister has done the right thing. Political rivalry should not affect our personal relationship. I support this brand of politics. I also share cordial relationships with many of the opposition party leaders here," he said.
--IANS
mgr/bc
(This story was auto-published from a syndicated feed. No part of the story has been edited by The Quint.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)