Election strategist Prashant Kishor on Sunday said that the opposition has repeatedly missed chances to stop the ruling BJP’s “juggernaut,” likening this to a fielder dropping a catch in a cricket match, and the dropped player going on to hit a century.

“If you keep dropping catches, the batter will score a century, especially if he is a good batter,” Kishor told PTI in an exclusive conversation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The elections, which will be held in seven phases, will begin on April 19 and conclude on June 1. The counting of votes for all 543 Lok Sabha seats will be conducted on June 4.

The saffron party’s “unstoppable” march under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is just a “perception” and a “big illusion,” the ex-JD(U) leader stressed.

“Despite its apparent dominance, neither the BJP nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ‘invincible.’ The opposition, especially the Congress, failed to capitalise whenever the BJP was on the backfoot. The ruling party had a long, barren phase electorally in 2015 and 2016, when it lost several assembly polls except in Assam. But the opposition allowed it to make a comeback,” he added.

The strategist pointed to two other electoral cycles. In March 2017, four months after demonetisation, the BJP won big in Uttar Pradesh, but narrowly avoided losing in Gujarat in December. Gujarat is the home state of both PM Modi and Union home minister and then-BJP chief Amit Shah, and the party has been in power there for nearly three decades. Then, in December 2018, just four months ahead of the 2019 general elections, it was defeated by the Congress in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Next, post the 2020 Covid outbreak, it lost in West Bengal against the Trinamool Congress in April-May 2021. “However, opposition leaders sat inside their homes, allowing the PM to make a comeback,” Kishor remarked.

In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the BJP will “feel the heat” only if the Congress-led opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc can ensure a loss of at least 100 seats in the former’s “strongholds” in north and west India, but “that is not going to happen,” Kishor said.

He also stood by his position that the JP Nadda-led outfit is “unlikely” to meet its target of 370 seats, but will have a tally of around 300 seats. He further reiterated that the party will “gain” in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal, where, traditionally, it has not been strong or began doing well only recently.