As the campaigning for the bitterly-fought Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls ended on Saturday, the BJP leadership asserted that the party will get an “absolute majority” in UP and also return to power in Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur.
Addressing a press conference, BJP president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the party will perform strongly in Punjab where for the first time it is contesting in 63-plus seats as against 23 seats it contested earlier.
“UP main BJP prchand Bahumat ki sarkar bana rahi hain aur hamme kissi aur ke sahyog ki zaroorat nahin hai...”, Shah said answering question on the possibility of the party seeking support of others to form a Government.
Shah said he has been a witness to 2014, 2017, and 2022 elections in UP and his party would not need the support of any party to be in power for the successive second time in the electorally key State with 403 Assembly seats.
On his part, Nadda dismissed questions on the contest in UP being neck to neck. “It is a one-sided election in UP…no need for any alliance. NDA coming back to power with good majority,” said the BJP president.
Shah said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath fulfilled over 92 per cent promises of “Sankalp part” in UP and implemented well all schemes of Prime Minister Modi as the latter held “historic rallies” and drew “huge public support from the public”.
Both the BJP leaders exuded confidence that the party will return to power in Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur riding the wave of development and the effective implementations of the Prime Minister’s pro-poor schemes and programmes.
Shah said under Modi the BJP has substituted the politics of “vikas” in place of “politics of caste, dynasty, and appeasement”. The Home Minister asserted that the BJP will on its own form Government in Manipur and Goa.
As about Punjab, Shah said the party would “make strong performance in the State”. When asked whether it means not forming Government in the border State, he said, “ We are not claiming to form Government in Punjab … but strong performance also means forming Government...”. Nadda said his party “will get more than expected results in Punjab”.
As about the Government’s role in bringing back Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine having any impact on voting, Shah said, “ Surely ...the Government issued timely advisory, setup monitoring cell…around 13,000 of 16,000 have come back and in next 24-hours 16 more flights are to come home.”
He said Prime Minister has met children and people gave (us) blessing to form the Government.
Shah did not agree that overall there has been a low turnout in the elections saying it could be true of some parts.