Amit Shah bets on UP for return of Modi govt
Attacking Rahul Gandhi on Assam citizens’ list, BJP chief says he has been asking the Congress president to clarify his stand on the issue but there has been no response
Uttar Pradesh will play a key role in the BJP’s re-election in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP President Amit Shah said on Sunday, downplaying the coming together of Opposition parties in the state, which sends 80 lawmakers to Parliament.
With the 2019 Lok Sabha election less than a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah bet on Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the party repeating its 2014 performance and returning to power at the Centre.
Addressing a public meeting at Chandauli district in eastern UP, on Sunday, Shah recalled that in run up to the 2014 poll, he had said the path to victory in Lok Sabha poll would traverse through UP.
“I am repeating the same today for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll that UP would play a key role in forming the next government at the Centre and re-electing the Narendra Modi government,” he added.
In 2014, the BJP had won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, ally Apna Dal won two. Shah said he was confident the tally would rise to 74.
On the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) combine, Shah said even if the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress joined hands with them, the BJP would emerge victorious.
He said the Modi government had given over ~8 trillion to UP, compared to ~3.3 trillion by the Manmohan Singh government during 2004-2014, even though the state had friendly regimes of the SP or BSP.
“The BJP government has given projects like the Bundelkhand Defence Corridor and Purvanchal Expressway to the state for faster socio-economic development,” he said. The Expressway would transform the state's economic landscape in future, he said.
Shah was in Chandauli district to attend a programme to rename Mughalsarai railway junction after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The function was attended by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and other seniors.
Shah mounted attack on Gandhi over National Register of Citizens (NRC) controversy in Assam, saying he had repeatedly asked the Congress president to clarify his stand but there was no response. He flayed opposition parties for allegedly siding with illegal Bangladeshi migrants, who, according to the BJP chief, would be identified and evicted. In his address, Goyal said under the Modi regime, the railways had been allocating development projects worth ~55 billion every year to UP against ~10-11 billion during the previous Congress-led government. “The Dedicated Freight Corridor which is being developed would touch most of the regions in UP and contribute to economic development,” he said.
“UP is the first state in the country to facilitate Direct Benefit Transfer of about ~1 trillion, against the earlier regime that was marked with anarchy, crime, riots, caste-based politics and nepotism,” he said.