HD Kumaraswamy confident of NDA ‘comfortably’ returning to power, says ‘no question of going back’

BENGALURU : A day ahead of the counting of votes in Lok Sabha elections 2024, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday expressed confidence in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ‘comfortably’ returning to power at the Centre.

JD(S) and BJP fought the 2024 general elections together in Karnataka.

“My prediction is not important. Several media friends and private survey agencies have already predicted that NDA will come to power with a huge margin,” Kumaraswamy said on Monday.

“NDA will come to power comfortably, there is no question of going back. Congress is trying to strengthen the minds of the Congress workers to attend tomorrow’s counting by misleading them. He (PM Modi) will be Prime Minister here for the third time,” he added.

#WATCH | Bengaluru | JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy says, “In Karnataka, JD(S)-BJP will get more than 25 seats including all 3 JD(S) seats…NDA will come to power comfortably.” pic.twitter.com/wUq9RbutaS

— ANI (@ANI) June 3, 2024

Taking a dig at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s 295-seat claim, Kumaraswamy said, “Up to tomorrow, they can enjoy by telling that they are going to get 15 seats, why I have to stop them. Up to tomorrow afternoon, they can enjoy feeling like that.”

He said the exit polls predicting the NDA winning more than 350 seats are not “a surprise result.” “When this election started, everybody felt that we would get nearly 400,” Kumaraswamy said.

“The government and how they are running, people are not happy with them. I think they will totally reject this government (in Karnataka) in this election,” he said.

The former CM also claimed that the JD(S)-BJP combination will get more than 25 seats. “And the JD(S), we will get all three seats with a comfortable margin,” he added.

According to a seat-sharing arrangement in the NDA, BJP is contesting on 25 seats and JD(S) on three seats out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.

The exit polls on June 1 predicted the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning most of the seats in Congress-ruled Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections and the Congress not putting up a good show.

The India Today-Axis My India poll predicted NDA getting 23-25 seats and INDIA bloc 3-5 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. The India TV exit poll said that the NDA is poised to win 19-25 seats in Karnataka, while the INDIA bloc is to get 4-8 seats. The exit poll by News18 predicted that NDA will get 23-26 seats and INDIA bloc will get 3-7 seats in Karnataka.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP almost swept the state by winning 25 out of 28 seats. Congress and JD(S)–in coalition in the state–could only win one seat each.

The exit polls predicted that the ruling BJP-led NDA is poised to improve its performance over its 2019 record when it won 352 seats. Two polls predicted the BJP would also improve its numbers from the 303 seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. (ANI)