How are the Lok Sabha elections going for the BJP? Is NDA scoring 400 seats this time? Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exclusively speaks to Anurradha Prasad (Editor-in-chief of News24) on all such questions.

PM is focusing on the south, you too have campaigned a lot, will the BJP benefit from southern states this time?

PM Modi has extensively campaigned across all states. The leaders in southern India don’t talk about the central govt schemes because their parties won’t benefit after that so this time our PM himself took charge and did roadshows in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and other states. Southern states are happy, and because a few South Indians have become Padma awards recipients, it has made a good impact, we’ve good schemes for people. We are definitely going to get good seats in South India.

Arvind Kejriwal said Yogi Adityanath will be removed and Narendra Modi will step down after September, what’s your say on this narrative?

Arvind Kejriwal boasts of such predictions because he wishes to be the most important leader of the INDI alliance. After its formation in 2012, the founding members of AAP including Prashant Bhushan, Mayank Gandhi, Yogendra Yadav, and Kumar Vishwas quitted from the party because they couldn’t cope and work with this corrupt leader.

Arvind commented on BJP, the party that has worked tirelessly like small units for forty years and has become the biggest political party. He did sensational talks only to elevate his position above his weight amongst the opposition leaders.

But PM Modi himself had put the barrier of 75 years…

Amit Shah aptly stated that there’s no such provision in the constitution. Arvind Kejriwal is not focusing on where his alliance stands but tries targeting PM Narendra Modi who is beyond his stature. It is because he wants to showcase himself as the biggest leader of the INDI alliance.

Will the interim bail of Arvind Kejriwal impact BJP seats?

Not at all. We will definitely win all the seats like before and there would be no impact of his bail on our party.

Will you take up the issue of freebies after forming the government?

We would want to discuss it with all the parties. Providing free electricity and providing equipment to have access to electricity are different things. We must talk about freebies and we will talk about it with all the parties.

Tejaswi Yadav recently said that free ration was our scheme, and the UPA too used to provide it. Modi is using it as an advertisement. 

Let me explain this with direct benefit transfer (DBT), the scheme through which the person is directly benefitted by removing any mediators. they’re granted pensions, wages, or rations with their own identity. This saves at least 2.30 lakh crores of rupees. In the UPA govt, there were mediators and numerous loopholes and corruption and they should first talk on that.

We on the other hand have wiped out everyone in between and the benefit reaches directly to the concerned person.

Had it not been for the digital world, don’t you think your govt too would have applied the same pattern?

The Internet didn’t come in the last few years and they keep taking credit for bringing the internet to India but there was no scrutiny, no checking. In our government, you go and check wherever you want and let us know if people are not benefiting.

Mallikarjun Kharge has accused PM Modi of telling lies. Others say he does a little and brags more. 

They had said in the parliament ‘Pradhan Mantri chor hai’ during the debate over the Rafale deal. Later on, Rahul Gandhi had to apologise in the Supreme Court so what to say about their statements. Ask them to put forward any evidence or proof to support their accusations, they don’t have anything.

The opposition alleges that the BJP seeks 400 seats to bring an amendment to change the constitution.

The Constitution was brutally murdered during the Emergency. They added a sixth year for the Lok Sabha session during those days and made changes in the preamble which is the soul of the constitution. Why did Indira Gandhi do that? Because she lost her seat and honorable court dismissed her victory from the Allahabad constituency. They arbitrarily made changes as per their will.