Cong in driving seats in state polls: Sharad Yadav

New Delhi: Opposition leader Sharad Yadav said on Sunday the BJP's hope to return to power at the Centre will be buried in the same states -- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar -- which had propelled it to a big win in 2014, and asserted that the Congress will trump the saffron party in all the five poll-bound states.

The results of the assembly polls, including BJP-ruled Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, will lay the foundation for the Lok Sabha elections next year, he told PTI in an interview.

People want to get rid of the Narendra Modi-led government as it has not fulfilled a single promise made to them in 2014, Yadav claimed.

Accusing Prime Minister Modi of resorting to "sentimental" ploys like raking up his tea-seller background while his party colleagues talk of building Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Loktantrik Janta Dal patron said this shows the BJP has nothing to talk about its government's achievements.

"The Congress is in the driving seats in all the five states. People are under distress and want to defeat the BJP. The results of these (assembly) polls will lay the foundation stone for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," he said.

Working to forge an alliance of opposition parties and win over new allies against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, Yadav said they will be united in 2019.

"The BJP had captured Delhi on the back of its win in the Gangetic plains (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar). Its hope of returning to power in 2019 will be buried in the same plains," he said. The NDA had won 104 of the 120 Lok Sabha seats in UP and Bihar in 2014 but a likely alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party has made things much more challenging for the BJP in the politically most crucial state that sends 80 members to the lower house of Parliament. The BJP has boosted its prospects in Bihar by allying with Chief Minister and JD(United) president Nitish Kumar, who had fought against it in 2014, but the opposition is

working to shore up its support by wooing leaders in the NDA camp. PTI