Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party will lose power in all the states, going to polls between March and April, except Assam, reported PTI.

The Assembly polls in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Puducherry will be held between March 27 and April 29. The votes will be counted on May 2.

“In a nutshell, the BJP will retain power in Assam, but will face defeat in other poll-bound states, and other political parties in those states will come to power,” he told reporters in Maharashtra’s Baramati town. “I am confident this trend will give a new direction to the country.”

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However, he said the people of the states would take a decision during voting, and that it was “wrong to talk about the results of the five states today”. He said in Kerala, where the Left and the NCP have allied, “we are sure that we will get a clear-cut majority”. In Tamil Nadu, majority of the votes will go to the MK Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

“In West Bengal, the Centre, especially the BJP, is misusing power and trying to attack a sister [reference to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] who is trying to fight for the people of the state,” Pawar said, according to PTI. He said the entire state had voiced its support for Mamata Banerjee as it was a “matter of Bengali pride and self-respect”.

Ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, which will be held in eight phases, the BJP and the TMC have been strongly campaigning against each other. The saffron party has repeatedly accused incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of corruption and not bringing development in the state. The TMC, on the other hand, has been blaming the BJP for indulging in the politics of division along communal lines.

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