BJP Minister Narendra Singh: 'people rose above politics of caste'

The Maharashtra and Haryana exit polls that came out on October 21 has made the BJP leadership confident that it will successfully retain its government in both the states with a majority. While interacting with a news agency, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stated that the exit polls matched the Bhartiya Janata Party's pre-poll prediction about returning to power with a majority.

"BJP has been saying that we are contesting elections on the issue of development and performance of our incumbent governments. Maharashtra government's performance was excellent and Haryana got a corruption-free and honest government after a long time", Tomar said.

"Haryana residents have forgotten that there is a quality called honesty in the government and BJP had to gain from its honest image. Voters are getting aware and voting for Narendra Modi and Nation," Tomar added.

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Counting of votes on October 24

After the polling procedure having concluded on October 21, the counting of the votes in both the states will begin on October 24. Tomar also spoke about the competition from the opposition in both the states. "people have voted on issues of policies, performance, and principles. They rose above narrow-minded politics of caste and voted for the BJP. The opposition was not even a factor," he informed.

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"On different seats, we faced competition from different parties. On some Jannayak Janata Party gave us competition, whereas on the others INLD and Congress candidates posed a challenge," Tomar added talking about facing a challenge from other parties

The Union Minister directly rejected the claims of former Haryana CM BS Hooda that the Congress would return to the government with an absolute majority.

"Hooda Ji ka jijaji prem Poore Haryana ko maloom hai. (Everyone in Haryana knows Hooda's love for his brother-in-law)," he added.

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While discussing the lagging position of the opposition in the polls, Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State for Jal Shakti from Haryana, said, "if you add zero to the earlier performance of zero, you will get a zero. if you call it a better performance, then so be it. And even Congress will lose seats. I am from Ambala Lok Sabha constituency. My Lok Sabha has seen hattrick. All 9 Assembly seats have come to BJP and I can assure you that even this fourth time we will get all 9 seats."

According to Kataria, many top leaders of the Congress party has already joined the BJP ahead of polls.

"We want a strong opposition in democratic setup, but the opposition was marred by its initial feud," the Jal Shakti Minister said.

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(With inputs from ANI)