The BJP has set its sight on the 90 seats it had lost in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as it works to win a clear majority again in 2019, a senior party leader said today.
With the BJP likely to fight a united opposition in big, politically crucial states such as Uttar Pradesh, many experts believe the party would find it difficult to repeat its 2014 performance when it had won 282 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
The senior party leader told reporters on condition of anonymity that the BJP had targeted a number of seats it had lost in 2014 and was confident of winning 90 of them.
"We have been working on it (securing these seats) after coming to power in 2014. We may lose a few seats we won the last time but our victory in these constituencies will take our tally beyond the majority figure," he claimed.
Asked about the BJP's chances in West Bengal, where it could bag only two of the 42 seats in 2014, he said it would win about 22 constituencies there in the next Lok Sabha elections.
The saffron party would also do well in Odisha, where it had won only one seat, he said.
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The BJP has identified a number of states, including West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana, as its growth regions for the next elections.
It has made its senor leaders, including Union ministers, in-charge of a clutch of five seats to strengthen its organisation at places where it had lost in 2014.
The party had won all seats in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and virtually swept Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Haryana among others to win its first ever majority in the Lok Sabha polls.