New Delhi: The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can win over 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union minister Piyush Goyal told senior journalist Anand Narasimhan on Saturday, at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2023. He also predicted an unprecedented poll outcome in Uttar Pradesh next year, hinting at BJP winning all 80 Lok Sabha seats in India’s most populous state.

“It is quite possible…It will not be that difficult” for the BJP-led alliance, Goyal said, when asked if the bloc would cross the magical 400 number.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 353 seats in 2019. The Congress is the only party in the Indian republic to have ever won more than 400 seats.

Asked about the BJP’s prospects in south India where regional parties dominate local politics, he said until recently, the party was non-existent in states like West Bengal, Tripura and some other north-eastern states.

“We were nowhere in West Bengal, northeastern states and many other places…People of India are smart. The public understands everything, and they know that PM Modi is the only leader who spends every moment in their service,” he added.

Goyal attacked the Opposition’s INDIA bloc over public squabbling.

“INDIA partners have been fighting each other. You don’t use those words for even your enemies that Akhilesh Yadav and Congress have been using for each other. Nitish Kumar recently attacked the Congress and said nothing was happening in the INDIA bloc and the party was busy in elections… The reality is that in the INDIA alliance, there is no party that can influence the electoral outcomes outside of their sphere of influence. Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee can’t even add one vote outside UP and West Bengal,” he added.

Talking about Uttar Pradesh, he said,” In UP, whenever they have consolidated, our vote base has increased. In 2024, in UP, our record will be such that there won’t be anything beyond.”

Asked if he was hinting at winning all 80 seats, he said “something like that”.

Responding to the question on the importance of Congress in BJP’s politics, he said, “You have a lot of strategies in life. It is not important to discuss everything in public… We wouldn’t like to end the Congress, Congress should exist, the Gandhi family should also exist; this family has been running the party for several decades, they can also rule in the future. However, we believe if their influence lowers in politics, we will go closer to our goal of corruption-free Bharat.”

Talking about the upcoming assembly elections, he said the BJP is going to score a landslide win in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. He said the party will retain power in Madhya Pradesh comfortably and wrest power from the Congress in Chhattisgarh.

Talking about the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in regional politics, he said his popularity at Centre is not a barrier in states but strength.

He also said the culture of doling out freebies isn’t sustainable.