BJP will win 2019 polls with bigger majority, says Amit Shah

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday sounded the poll bugle in its national executive meet and gave the slogan of “Ajeya (invincible) BJP” for the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, asking its cadre to remember just two things — ‘Bharat Mata’ (Mother India) and ‘Kamal’ (party’s lotus poll symbol) — for the next few months to ensure a bigger victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 as compared to 2014.

Insisting that the party would bag a bigger majority in the next Lok Sabha polls, the BJP chief asserted that while the Modi government is working for “making India”, the Congress is working for “breaking India” and termed the Opposition party’s effort to stitch a “non-BJP” front as an “illusion and a myth”, which “peddles lies”.

The saffron party has also decided to fight the Lok Sabha elections under Mr Shah’s presidentship and extend his tenure beyond January when his three-year term comes to an end. The party’s organisational polls scheduled for January are likely to be suspended to give Mr Shah an extension in the top post.

In his presidential address on the inaugural day of the two-day BJP national executive meet, Mr Shah sought to build a narrative about his party around the theme of development, especially targeting the poor, and nationalism, while painting the Opposition as those sympathising with “urban Naxals” and working for ‘breaking India” in its frustration over electoral losses.

The BJP meet at the Ambedkar International Centre and was attended by party top brass including Mr Modi, party veteran L.K. Advani, Union ministers, state presidents and other senior leaders from the central and state units.  

Despite many political watchers suggesting that the BJP may find it hard to repeat its 2014 feat, Mr Shah said that the party would easily win in 19 states where it is in power and also emerge victorious in states such as West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana due to “anti-incumbency” factor against regional parties in power there.

The BJP president asked leaders and cadre to shun complacency and take the message of the Modi government’s achievement to each and every house, asserting that the Central government’s schemes have “touched each and every section of the society”.

Union defence minister Nirmala Sithaman, who briefed the media about the closed door national executive meeting, quoted Mr Shah as saying, “We will return to power strongly and with a good majority. We will win with a bigger majority than what we got in 2014.”

The BJP had won 282 seats out of 543 in the 2014 parliamentary election. She said in the beginning of his presidential address Mr Shah paid homage to former Prime Minister and late party patriarch Atal Behari Vajpayee, who passed away last month, and said that the void created in Indian politics due to his demise is impossible to fill.

The BJP president gave credit to the team of Atal-Advani for bringing the party at the present level from the days of having just two MPs.

Exuding confidence, Mr Shah said that the BJP is stronger in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram, where Assembly polls is scheduled by the end of this year. Telangana where the Assembly got dissolved recently may also go to polls along with the other four states. While the first three state are BJP ruled, Mizoram has a Congress government and TRS’ K. Chandrasekhar Rao is the caretaker chief minister in Telangana.  

Listing achievements of the government including increase in the minimum support price for farmers, Ayushman Bharat scheme, constitutional status for the backward classes commission, unhindered urea supply and improved economic indicators, Mr Shah asked party leaders to challenge the Opposition, including former finance minister “P. Chidambaram and company” with facts.

The BJP is likely to bring in two resolutions, one on current political scenario in the country and other on the benefits given by the government to the agriculture and allied sectors, sources said.

Mr Shah also “broadly referred” to the recent legislation by the government to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on the SC/ST Act, which has angered the BJP’s core votebank, the upper castes.

The government was forced to bring in the legislation after violent protests by dalit groups, who felt the apex court had diluted the Act by doing away with the provision for immediate arrest of person who commits atrocities against dalits.

Mr Shah said the opposition has been making “baseless” allegations against it over dalit issues. He alleged that the Congress was playing caste and appeasement politics and trying to spread false propaganda against the government but people will give it a befitting reply. 

He said political outfits that are trying to form a “Mahagathbandhan” against the BJP were defeated by it in 2014.  

Terming the Opposition as “disruptionists”, Mr Shah said they no longer seem to be representing the voice of the people, referring to the recent no-trust motion moved by the Opposition parties in Parliament against the government, which got defeated.

Mr Shah said that there was no reason for the motion and accused the main Opposition of being in “denial mode” after it was defeated with a big margin.

Mr Shah also touched on the issues of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the triple talaq.

Taking a dig at senior Congress leader and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had recently said that the Modi government had failed on all fronts, Mr Shah said that while Dr Singh follows his party, Mr Modi leads his.

Hitting back at Mr Chidambaram over his criticism of the government’s economic policies, especially demonetisation, Mr Shah said over three lakh shell companies were shut down hampering black money operations and the number of income-tax assesses has doubled after the note ban.