The Bharatiya Janata Party may emerge as the biggest party in West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, poll strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted. In an interview to news agency PTI, Kishor said that the BJP has worked hard to enhance its presence in the eastern and southern regions of the country and that the hard work may yield rich dividends to the party in the general elections.

“To my mind, the BJP is going to be the number one party in West Bengal,” Kishor told PTI, adding that the BJP will also lead the Lok Sabha seat tally in Odisha and emerge as the first or second party in Congress-ruled Telangana.

Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala cumulatively account for 204 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, but the BJP couldn’t cross the 50-seat mark in these states either in 2014 or 2019.

Kishor has often pointed out that despite failing to make headway in these states, it has managed to cover its losses by registering impressive performances in the northern and western belts of the country.

According to Kishor, the only chance the Opposition has to beat the BJP is if it manages to defeat the BJP in its stronghold states in the North and West. “And that’s not going to happen. By and large, the BJP will be able to hold its ground in these regions,” he said.

Kishor further pointed out that contrary to the Opposition, the BJP and its leaders have made several visits to the states where the BJP performed badly in the Lok Sabha elections in these five years.

“Count the number of visits the Prime Minister made to Tamil Nadu in the last five years, versus Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi or any other opposition leader for that matter made in battleground states. Your fight is in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, but you are touring Manipur and Meghalaya. Then how you will get success,” Kishor said.

Kishor, who managed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s campaign in the 2021 elections, resulting in a thumping victory for the Trinamool Congress in the state, says the Opposition has given BJP way too many chances. “The BJP had a barren phase electorally in 2015 and 2016 when it lost several assembly polls, but the Opposition missed its chances. The BJP almost lost power in Gujarat and was defeated in several states in 2018, but Congress blundered in the 2019 polls.”

The BJP has pushed ahead with all its might in Bengal where it won 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections, ending a close second after the Trinamool Congress that won 22. In the 2021 state polls, however, the Trinamool denied the BJP a rerun of the Lok Sabha polls and returned to power with a thumping majority. The BJP, undeterred, is now pushing hard to improve its tally in West Bengal, especially in the wake of the Sandeshkhali issue that has emerged as a key talking point in the state.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held between April 19 and June 1 with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.