Vajpayee sees NDA bagging 300 seats

Prime Minister says BJP is not worried over exit poll predictions

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday conceded that the current Lok Sabha elections were not a "no contest", but asserted that he had no reason to worry.

Unfazed by the exit polls, Vajpayee said the elections were going as per the calculations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and he was hopeful that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would get more than 300 seats, though he did not share the optimism of some of his party colleagues that the BJP would get that figure on its own.

Refusing to attach undue importance to the exit polls, most of which had shown the NDA returning to power with a reduced majority and the Opposition improving its tally, Vajpayee told PTI that while these polls were an "indicator" they sometimes go topsy-turvy.

Asked if he was worried by the latest election trends, which appear to have buoyed the Congress, the prime minister said he saw no cause for the Congress to be happy just because exit polls showed a narrowing of the gap between it and the NDA.

Vajpayee said the elections were going well "as per our expectations" and "we are confident that we will get a majority".

To a question if the NDA would get more seats than what was predicted by the exit polls, he said, "The result of the exit polls, so far, are from areas where we had good expectations. Now we are in areas where there will be keen contests."

The Prime Minister said earlier polls had predicted that in Karnataka the BJP was in a bad situation, but now the same polls claimed that the party would do well there.

When asked whether the party would get 300 seats on its own, he replied, "I don't say so."

On whether the BJP would adopt any new strategy in the remaining two phases of the elections, like wooing backward classes and Muslims, Vajpayee said, "Our strategy will be to get people out of their homes to vote. In many places the voting had been low. We want to mobilise people. Door-to-door and person-to-person contact will be our emphasis."

He cited the example of Gujarat, where the BJP was in a strong position and would get more seats, but recorded surprisingly low polling.

"Our supporters have taken it for granted that there is no contest. It should not be there," Vajpayee warned.

On Muslims' response to the BJP in these elections, he said, "The community is still thinking. It has not decided. But the situation is also not that Muslims are against us and will not shake hands with us. This attitude is changing."

He said a clear picture of the BJP's prospects in Uttar Pradesh was yet to appear. In Bihar, he expected a similar performance.

Quizzed on his recent statements hinting at the Samajwadi Party and the BJP coming together in the post-poll scenario, Vajpayee said, "They (Samajawadi Party) would start howling. There are many possibilities. It is there now. It is difficult to detail them."

He said when he talked about similarity in thinking between the two parties it was in respect to issues like the protection of democracy, fight against the Emergency and the foreign origin issue.

When asked to clarify his reported statement that he was worried about running a coalition, the Prime Minister said what he had meant was a compact coalition that should not be unwieldy due to the presence of single-member parties. "The number of parties in the coalition should be less," he added.

On the Congress' allegation of his betrayal of the freedom movement in 1942, Vajpayee said the Congress raised it before every election. "Before the last elections, 54 Congress MPs had issued a joint statement. In Parliament also they raised this issue."

On the controversy over his successor in the BJP, Vajpayee denied a decision had been taken on this.

"Definitely not. The question does not not arise. I had said from the beginning that it is the party's job. In a democracy, there is no question of succession. When the time comes, the party will decide," he said. Asked if he had a personal opinion on who would succeed him, the Prime Minister said, "I don't want to get into it."

Asked who he was referring to when he remarked that he was hurt more by criticism "from within", he said it was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which made some comments against him on Friday and even yesterday.