Shah urges UP cadre to take on SP ‘misrule’

LUCKNOW: BJP president Amit Shah, chief architect of the party’s spectacular win in the Lok Sabha elections, on Tuesday predicted a similar sweep in four states where assembly polls are due.

Shah, a long-time confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also said that it was time for the party to reclaim the government in Uttar Pradesh where assembly elections are scheduled to take place in 2017.

“I am sure that with the toil and hard work of party workers, we will achieve a two-thirds majority in the assembly elections,” he told the party cadre in Lucknow, kicking off his twoday trip to UP during which he will take stock of the BJP’S poll preparedness.

By-elections in one parliamentary and 11 assembly constituencies in UP will be held on September 13.

“It would be really pleasing to have a BJP chief minister in UP taking oath with Kalyan Singhji (the state’s first BJP CM) by his side,” he said.

Urging party workers to take on the “misrule” of the Samajwadi Party in the state, Shah accused the Akhilesh Yadav government of punishing people for overwhelmingly voting for the BJP and PM Modi in the parliamentary polls.

Shah was the man responsible for the BJP’S stunning show in UP where the party

won over the Dalits and other backward classes to secure 71 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, ensuring that it emerged as the single largest party in Parliament.