Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised to score “a decisive victory” in Assam and has strengthened its position in Kerala. Jaitley was speaking at the two-day BJP meet that concluded on Sunday after PM Narendra Modi’s address.
He said the Bharatiya Janata Party hoped to improve its position “significantly” in the five states going to the polls in April-May including Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The BJP has never been a leading player in any of the five states. “We will improve our performance significantly in the assembly polls.”
“In Assam, our alliance (with AGP) is effective. We will score a decisive victory,” Jaitley told reporters on the second day of the BJP National Exectuvie meeting. “In Kerala, we have strengthened our position. The politics in Kerala has changed. “As far as West Bengal is concerned, we will try to increase our vote share,” Jaitley said.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Arun Jaitley said: “The Congress position in these states is clearly evident. I think the Congress has lowered its level of ambition and is quite content to become a tail of the alliance.”
Arun Jaitley also spoke on the situation in Uttarakhand after nine Congress legislators rebelled against Chief Minister Harish Rawat and joined hands with the BJP. “There was a deep division in the Congress in Uttarakhand and it should not be attributed to the BJP,” he said. He criticised Uttarakhand Speaker G.S. Kunjwal for his decision to pass the budget by voice vote.