00:00Prime Minister Modi has set the BJP an ambitious target of 370 seats in the Lok Sabha election
00:09and more than 400 for the National Democratic Alliance or the NDA.
00:14But is it actually possible for them to do this?
00:16Well, politics is the art of the possible and you can never rule anything out, but it's
00:20not going to be easy.
00:22As I wrote in a previous column, for the BJP to add 67 seats to its tally, which is what
00:27it would have to do to get 370, it would have to retain all the seats that it had won earlier,
00:35including those states where it maxed out, and then add seats from newer places, particularly
00:41the southern states, where it is actually much weaker.
00:45Secondly, this target of 400 for the NDA explains why the BJP has been aggressively wooing smaller
00:53parties, even former allies, back into the NDA fold.
00:57So for example, Prime Minister Modi shared the stage this week with Mr. Chandra Babu
01:01Naidu of the TDP.
01:03And this came as a surprise because they had a very bitter parting of ways back in 2018.
01:08Mr. Naidu has personally attacked the Prime Minister on several occasions.
01:13The BJP too has labelled him corrupt and immoral.
01:17But of course, it's real politic and so they're back together once again.
01:22Like that, the BJP is sewing up alliances in many other states.
01:26There could be one with Naveen Patnaik's BJD, for example, the Akali Dal may be back in
01:31the NDA fold as well.
01:33There are southern parties like the PMK who they are wooing.
01:36And then surprisingly, even a husband like Raj Thackeray of the MNS, he's now coming
01:42to a tie up with the BJP in Maharashtra because they're so keen on the Maratha vote, even
01:47though he doesn't really have much clout.
01:50Is this desperation on the part of the BJP or is this a well thought out, calculated
01:55strategy to reach the 400 mark?
01:57We'll have to wait and see.
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