'I still expect BJP to emerge as single largest party, but..': Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on upcoming Lok Sabha polls

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to emerge as the single largest party in the coming Lok Sabha polls, but its tally can be brought down to a level that its potential allies choose the opposition alliance over the saffron party, said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. The diplomat turned politician, Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that the Congress and the opposition parties would be working on the same strategy for the next Lok Sabha elections set to take place this year.

"I still expect that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party. But I do believe their numbers can be brought down to a level where their potential allies required to form a government may no longer be willing to ally with them and may be willing to ally with us. So we have to give it a try," the former Union minister said in a session, ‘India: The Future is Now’ at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) on Saturday.

Referring to the INDIA bloc, Tharoor said that India is a diverse country and he is perfectly prepared to live with the situation where they don't have a "100 percent agreement in 100 percent of the states". INDIA bloc seat sharing pattern to vary from state to state While talking about the INDIA bloc, Shashi Tharoor said that he only hopes to have "sufficient agreements" in as many states as possible so that "preventable defeats" can be avoided.

Explaining the seat sharing agreement of the party, Shashi Tharoor said that the agreement among all the opposition parties can vary from state to state. In some states there can be one single candidate representing all the opposition parties against the BJP, whereas in other states, there might be two or three candidates, in which case "the voter has to choose the person they consider would best represent them", he said.

"That's the best thing they can do, and if it so happens, and there is enough divergence of views, maybe the BJP candidate will win. But that's democracy in our first past the post system," he added. The 67 year old gave the example of two neighboring states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to buttress his point on why the seat sharing pattern of the INDIA bloc will vary from state to state.

"In Kerala, it is almost impossible to imagine the two major opponents here of the INDIA alliance, namely the CPI(M) and the Congress, ever agreeing on seat sharing, but right next door in Tamil Nadu, the CPI, CPI(M), Congress and DMK are all allied together and there is no debate, no dispute. Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world to know more.

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