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CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri on Tuesday said Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would not have chosen two constituencies — Varanasi and Vadodara — to contest the Lok Sabha polls had there been a ‘Modi wave’ in the country.
“We know about people going to Kashi (Varanasi) leaving everything behind. In this case, Modi chose Varanasi to generate religious sentiments in the minds of voters as there was no wave in his party’s favour,” Yechuri told party supporters at an election meeting.
Terming the pre-poll surveys as a handiwork of the corporate media, Yechuri said the field reports coming from different parts of the country were contradicting the claims of these surveys that had given majority Lok Sabha seats to the BJP-led alliance.
Also targeting Modi for his claim to be the country’s next PM, he stated no leader who proclaimed himself to be the Prime Minister became one in the past. In his case, the choice for the top job was still being debated within the BJP.
On the electoral prospects of the non-BJP and non-Congress alliance, Yechuri said the third political alternative was sure to emerge after the elections as neither the BJP nor the Congress could provide a policy direction to the country. He alleged the BJP had supported every policy move of the Congress except in permitting FDI in retail.
The CPI(M) leader said the proposed third alternative would be gaining more friends once the picture gets clear. He said his party was sure of improving the tally this time as Kerala was going to give more seats and the extent of improvement would really depend on whether the voters in West Bengal were allowed to caste their votes at all.
