Certain to retain power: Shah

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

Asserting that BJP’s return to power in 2019 is “not a challenge but a certainty”, its president Amit Shah on Saturday said Opposition parties’ “federal front” would not affect the party’s prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the government’s achievements over the last four years, Shah said, “The Modi government has done a lot to fulfill its promises in four years and one year is still left.” “Ask the 22 crore poor for whom these four years have brought ‘achhe din’.”

Shah said Modi came as “a ray of hope for people struggling through a long, black night”. He replaced the UPA’s policy paralysis with a performance-driven government working for the poor and improved economy while also raising the country’s esteem in the world.

Projecting the next elections as a contest between Modi’s efforts to “remove corruption and poverty” and the Opposition’s one-point agenda — “Modi Hatao”, the BJP chief said Opposition parties were trying to align as they know they would not be able to defeat the NDA individually. They can “lie”, but they would not be able to challenge facts and figures of development carried out by the Modi government, he added.

On the prospects of “federal front”, Shah said other parties fought against the BJP many times since 2014, but failed. So, there is nothing new in what they were trying to do now. “Besides, what difference does it make to voters in Andhra Pradesh if Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) joins hands with N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) or vice versa? What happened when two UP boys  (Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav) contested together in Uttar Pradesh? People know what they want,” he added.

“People are approving Modi’s politics of performance. We are confident they will send him back with a bigger mandate to allow him to continue the change he is bringing in their lives,” he said. BJP president claimed that the party had support of all its allies and hopefully sulking partner Shiv Sena would also contest with the BJP-led block in 2019. “We want that the Shiv Sena should come with us. Even now, they are with us both at the Centre and the state. The TDP may have left, but now we have Nitish Kumar (JD-U). As many as 11 new parties have joined us since 2014,” he said.