LS polls: BJP will win more seats than earlier in MP, says Prabhat Jha

BHOPAL: Riding high on BJP's spectacular win in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year, senior leader Prabhat Jha said he was confident that the party would perform better than last time in the Lok Sabha polls.

"There are many factors behind my confidence... I feel that the BJP will this time win more seats than it has won in the past," Prabhat told PTI.

Spelling out the reasons for his conviction, the BJP vice president said Congress is in a bad shape and would find it tough to overcome the drubbing it received during the last year's state Assembly elections.

The dismal show during the Assembly polls coupled with the anger among people towards Congress over rising prices and corruption would affect the party's prospects, he said.

"The Congress is almost nowhere in the picture now and there is no doubt that the party will be wiped out during the Lok Sabha polls," Prabhat claimed.

When it was pointed out to him that BJP was confident of winning the general elections in 2004 and 2009 as well but then lost them, Jha said it won't happen this time.

During the last year's MP Assembly elections, the BJP got a thumping majority by winning 165 seats in the 230-member House. The Congress managed to win only 58 seats.

The BJP had won 16 Lok Sabha seats out of the 29 in the state during the 2009 parliamentary elections while Congress had emerged victorious on 12 seats.