BJP will come back with 300+ seats: Goyal

NEWDELHI: Railways minister Piyush Goyal on Friday credited the NDA government with rescuing and strengthening an economy that he said was in a shambles when it took office, and empowering citizens by providing them new platforms for innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish.

“We have absolutely not lost the narrative on the economy,” the minister, who held charge of the finance portfolio during the months that Arun Jaitley was away recuperating from a surgery earlier this year, said in response to a question at the at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

The Bjp-led NDA government’s handling of the economy has been questioned by opposition members amid a weakening rupee, high fuel prices,the piling-up of bad loans in the banking system and agrarian distress caused by sliding commodity prices. On Thursday, to ease the pain of consumers, the government cut the prices of petrol and diesel by ₹2.5 per litre and urged state governments to follow suit.

Goyal said he was confident that the BJP will return to power in the 2019 general elections with 300 plus seats (it won 282 in 2014) and the NDA will get a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha. “We believe in action and people know we have achieved a lot in the past four years,” he said.

On the Railway, he outlined improvements carried out in infrastructure by the NDA government.