Hitting out at the BJP for allegedly breaking the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government in Maharashtra, author and commentator Sanjay Jha on Saturday said that similar to the stock exchange in Mumbai, there is also a stock exchange for MLAs.
Jha, while speaking at the session "Polling the Pollsters: Can They Get 2024 Right?", hit out at the BJP for breaking the Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra.
While speaking at the ABP Network’s ‘Ideas of Summit’ on Saturday, Sanjay Jha said, "We should talk about some morality. There is an 'Operation Lotus' here. In Mumbai, we have a stock exchange on Dalal Street. Today, there is a stock exchange for MLAs. You can buy whoever you want at any time. It is a mockery of democracy."
Jha called the breaking of the Shiv Sena-led coalition government in Maharashtra as the betrayal of the people of the state.
He further said that he tells his friends in Congress not to get disillusioned and disappointed and added that the BJP government has no chance of winning back.
"If I talk as an ordinary citizen and talk about the social and economic issues, then this government has no chance of coming back," he said,
Sanjay Jha said the elections in 2024 will depend on Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, UP, and Karnataka. "Congress has to do the heavy lifting. Congress has the momentum on its side," he said.
He further said that on 202 seats, where there was a contest between the BJP and the Congress, the grand-old party won only 16 seats in the last general elections in 2019.
C-Voter founder Yashwant Deshmukh, who also attended the session, said, "In 2019, BJP polled 37% of the votes. Congress fell short by 17%, polling just 20% of the votes. The baseline fell to record a 21% deficit from 1999 for Congress. In 1999, when Vajpayee became the PM, Congress got 4% votes more than the BJP. This swing in the baseline is what is giving the BJP confidence."