He's being stupid coz galti se bhi if Paras and Mahira end up being the contenders, and end up winning, a deserving person loses. Jaise usne socha hai waisa hi exact toh ho nahi sakta.. so he needs to go with eliminating the least deserving first and then fight it out.
But why would he care about who deserves to go or not ..infact anyone would prefer a weak opponent so that their own chances increases..plus if he wants himself and Sana to be conteders in this task then they have to win the rounds first which will be possible only if they are playing united ..if they will play separately then opposite team wins the round and remove one from their side making them more weaker and it lessen the chances of winning other rounds too..and if rashmi's team keep winning the rounds who will they remove Ultimately?? Removing Paras and mahira means losing help of akash and shefali in collecting the notes and by chance rashmi's team wins any round and when pahira are already out then who will they remove,high chances of it being Sid or Sana..so they needed to wins rounds first and for that more people for help the better the chance and if opposite team is out then comes the next phase where they strategies to save themselves..