BJP has crossed majority mark after sixth phase: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah exuded confidence that his party has already crossed the majority mark after the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls and took a swipe at opposition parties over their proposed meeting, saying they may meet to elect a leader of the opposition.

"You (media) keep asking me how many seats we will win. I have traveled across the country and looking at the popular response, I am fully confident that the BJP after the fifth and sixth phase of the elections has crossed the majority figure. It is going to cross 300 after the seventh phase and the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi will form the government again," he told a press conference.

The seventh and last phase of the elections for 543 Lok Sabha seats is due on May 19. A party needs to win 272 seats for a simple majority. The BJP had won 282 in 2014.

Mocking the proposed meeting of opposition leaders and the move by some regional parties like TRS to form a federal front, Shah said such meetings do not affect the BJP whose seats, he added, are not going to come down.

They may meet to elect a leader of the opposition, he said, adding that results even this time may not give any party enough number of seats to elect a leader of the opposition from its ranks.

The Congress, the main opposition party, had won only 44 seats in 2014, less than the minimum 10 percent of seats a party needs to win to claim the post of the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.