The BJP on Tuesday claimed that its performance in South India, a region where it has traditionally struggled outside Karnataka, will be historic and accused the Congress of running a campaign full of blatant lies and misinformation.

BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who contested against incumbent MP and Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, said history will be made on June 4 when votes for the Lok Sabha polls are counted.

The BJP has performed extremely strongly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and its overall tally from south India will be closer to 60 this time, he claimed.

 The region has a total of 131 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had won 29, including 25 in Karnataka, of those in 2019, drawing a blank in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Polling in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are over.

 The BJP is in a tight fight in nine seats in Kerala and people will witness a dramatic change in the political landscape in Tamil Nadu as it will emerge as a principal second pole there, he said.

 He also accused the Congress of running a campaign full of blatant lies, misinformation, deepfake videos and bizarre economic proposals. It has become so desperate that it is misleading voters that the BJP will change the Constitution, he said. Such a claim has come from a party that has amended the Constitution the maximum number of times, he added.

 Amid police action by several BJP-ruled states besides the Delhi Police, which reports to the Centre, in the case of morphed videos of Home Minister Amit Shah to give the impression he promised to end the reservation for disadvantaged Hindu communities, the Union minister blamed the Congress for it and said the party is doing what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had warned about deepfakes long ago. Law has stringent provisions against promoting deepfakes, he said.