The Congress on Monday took a dig at BJP over senior party leader Ram Madhav hinting that the BJP would need allies for comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, saying that statements of its leaders give an impression that the party is in "electoral depression".Talking to media here, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said that Ram Madhav has admitted that BJP may not get majority on its own to form a government and it would need allies. "This is clear that the BJP has accepted that its game is over after five phases of election. BJP's statements have given a clear impression that the BJP is in electoral depression... is nervous. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who for the past five years, was in panic mode or rather in flight mode, today is in an electoral panic mode," he said. "In the past five years, the Prime Minister could not uplift the standard of living of the people of the country, but he completely single-handedly lowered the standard of politics in the country," he said, adding that by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Modi has proved that the BJP campaign has reached "a dead end".
Ram Madhav, in an interview to Bloomberg, had said that "if we get 271 seats on our own, we will be very happy" and that "with NDA (National Democratic Alliance), we will have a comfortable majority". His remarks were seen to be at variance with other party leaders who have predicted that the BJP will get full majority. BJP President Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have said that the party will get full majority, while Prime Minister Modi has also expressed confidence of BJP returning with "full majority" and the NDA getting over 300 seats. Ram Madhav also said that the party will make up expected losses in the north Indian states it swept in 2014 with gains in states such as West Bengal and Odisha where the party "expanded" well and "if similar effort had been put into south India also, probably we would have been more comfortable".