BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday ruled out any post poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or any other party in the event of a hung Assembly in Uttar Pradesh and exuded confidence that the party will get a “full majority”.
As U.P. gears for the fourth phase of the seven-phase Assembly elections on Thursday, Mr. Shah, 52, also said that the BJP not naming a chief ministerial candidate was part of the party’s poll “strategy”.
In a wide-ranging interview, when asked if the BJP would be willing to ally with the BSP or any other party to form a government if it fell short of a majority, he said “Kisi se bhi haath milane ka dur-dur tak koi swaal nahin uthatha [there is no question by far of joining hands with any party],”
The comments by Mr. Shah come against the backdrop of a few poll surveys and political experts projecting a hung Assembly in U.P., given that all the three players — the SP-Congress, the BSP and the BJP — have a robust set-up and a loyal social base in the State.
Mr. Shah, who had campaigned extensively in the State, acknowledged the importance of the poll outcome in the State on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but at the same time felt that the results would be even more crucial for the country’s development.
Mr. Shah, who is working hard to recreate the magic of 2014 — the BJP won 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats — in the face of stiff competition from the SP-Congress alliance and Mayawati’s BSP, expressed the confidence that his party will form the next government in U.P., Uttarakhand and Goa with “full majority”, but was unwilling to make a prediction about Punjab, noting that it was a triangular contest there involving the SAD-BJP, the Congress and the AAP.
“In Goa, Uttarakhand and U.P., we will form governments with full majority. It is trikoniay muqablaa hai [triangular contest] in Punjab, so it is difficult to make a guess who will win,” he noted.
Addressing a Bahujan Samaj Party rally in Faizabad, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party will do away with reservations if voted to power. “If BJP comes to power in the elections, all reservations will go away, have got information from sources,” Mayawati said.
Alleging that the BJP would foment trouble in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati added that atrocities against Dalits will be on the rise. She also described BJP as “Bhartiya Jumla Party”. “Not only in Uttar Pradesh, people across the country know BJP as Bharatiya Jumla Party,” she said.
Earlier this week, Mayawati also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling BSP “Behenji Sampatti Party”. She hit back saying Narendra Damodardas Modi stood for “Negative Dalit Man”. Addressing a rally in Sultanpur, Mayawati said: “I don’t like to indulge in jumlebazi (play of words) like the Prime Minister. But today, I have to give a tit-for-tat.
