Shah dubs opposition grand alliance plans ‘an eyewash’
BJP PRESIDENT ACCUSES CONGRESS OF ALIGNING WITH FORCES THAT WANT TO ‘BREAK’ INDIA
With the party deciding to fight the next Lok Sabha elections under his leadership, BJP President Amit Shah yesterday hit out at opposition plans for a grand alliance, saying his party was not in the least bothered about such an “eyewash”.
In his inaugural speech at the two-day National Executive of the BJP, Shah accused the Congress of aligning with forces that want to “break” India while his party was focused on “making” India.
‘Keen to win’
He said the party was keen to win the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram to which list has been added Telangana, where the Assembly has been dissolved.
“The talk of mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) is eyewash based on falsehood. It is not going to make any difference in 2019 because we have fought against each and every opposition party in 2014. We are not bothered about it,” Shah was quoted as saying by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who briefed the media on the presidential speech.
Shah urged party workers not to be complacent because of the continuous electoral successes since 2014 and to reach out to the people with a clearcut message that BJP was not at all worried about the opposition ganging up against the party.
Shah said the party was in power already in 19 states where it was sure of doing well in the Lok Sabha elections.
“West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana and other states where the BJP was in second position in 2014, we need to take advantage of anti-incumbency there. We will also perform better in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” he said. Shah said the BJP would contest the next Lok Sabha polls on the plank of its performance and organisational strength and form a government with a bigger mandate than in 2014.
Attacking former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his critical comments on Friday against the Modi government’s performance, Shah said “Manmohan Singh follows his party, while Modi leads. That is the difference.”
Chidambaram criticism
Referring to various issues including the “backlash” from upper castes on the recent amendment to the SC-ST law, Shah dubbed all the allegations by the opposition as “baseless”.
“While Make in India is not a mere campaign but a movement for building the country, Congress is running a campaign of breaking India. Congress has identified itself with breaking groups,” he said.
The BJP President also hit out at former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for being critical of the economic achievements of the government.
He asked the party cadres to apprise themselves of the facts on the economy and challenge “PC and his company” on the issue.