Even united Opposition won’t affect BJP’s prospects in 2019: Shah

New Delhi, May 26

BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday said that Opposition parties coming together as a collective federal front against it would not affect party’s prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Recounting achievements of four years of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah said Opposition parties were trying to align as they know they would not have been able to defeat the NDA individually.

However, they had also fought against the BJP in 2014 and failed. Therefore, there is nothing new in what they were trying to do now, he said.

“What difference does it make to voters in Andhra Pradesh if Mamata Banerjee and the TDP come together or vice in West Bengal,” he questioned

“See what happened when two UP boys (Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav) joined hands to contest in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. People of the country know what they want,” he added

Shah, who claimed that the Prime Minister had been able to fulfil most of the promises it made, including of “achche din”, said the party had support of all its allies and hopefully sulking partner Shiv Sena would also contest with the NDA block in 2019.

“We want the Shiv Sena should come with us, they are with us both at the Centre and the State. The TDP may have left but we now have Nitish Kumar (JD-U). Eleven new parties have joined in since 2014,” he said

Shah said the 2014 mandate ended years of political uncertainty and “came like a ray of hope to the people after a long, black night”.

“People of the country are standing like a rock with the PM and approve his 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. Today we have the most hardworking PM, a visionary and most popular leader of the world,” he said

Shah added that while anyone could challenge the facts and figures he was giving they would not be able to prove them wrong.

The BJP chief also said South India had great potential for the BJP from electoral politics point of view. This apart, faced with new political groupings and challenges ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha, the BJP is now trying to tap 80 such constituencies which were not with it in 2014. With these, the party hopes to cover up for any setback in States like Uttar Pradesh where alliance between the BSP and the SP is posing a major challenge for the party ahead of 2019.