BJP ally and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday asserted that the saffron party's loss in the recent state poll results would have no impact on the Lok Sabha elections and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the ruling NDA to victory in 2019. The Lok Janshakti Party president attributed the BJP's loss in three states it ruled to the "anti-incumbency".
Despite the anti-incumbency, the BJP's vote share in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was almost equal to the Congress, which emerged victorious, he said.
"These verdicts will have no impact on the Lok Sabha elections. The National Democratic Alliance is intact and it will retain power at the Centre in 2019 under Modi's leadership," the Dalit leader told PTI in his first comments after the results were declared on Tuesday.
The BJP suffered a big blow as it lost power in all the three states it ruled. The Congress won convincingly in Chattisgarh, less so in Rajasthan and edged out the saffron party in a cliffhanger in Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP also fared poorly in Telangana. In Mizoram, opposition Mizo National Front defeated the Congress.
Paswan said people's verdict is always welcome in a democracy.
Now the Congress has come to power in the three states, it should let its work speak there, he said.
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