As the voting for the penultimate phase of the Lok Sabha elections concluded with just the polling for the last phase remaining, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah said “We are in a comfortable position” and “already have the numbers” to form the next government.
During an interview with The Indian Express on Saturday, Amit Shah said that while he agrees that a strong Opposition is good for democracy, “it’s the janata (people) who will decide that” and it cannot be determined by the wishes of a section.
When asked about the growing bitterness between the ruling party and the Opposition, the Home Minister pinned the blame on former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, holding him responsible for the downslide in the country’s political standards.
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“In my opinion, it’s after the entry of Rahul Gandhi in the party that the Congress’s behaviour has changed, the standards of politics have fallen after that,” he said. “This had also influenced the attitude of those parties which had formed a gathbandhan with the Congress,” Shah added.
At the end of the sixth phase of polling, Amit Shah appeared confident that the BJP was in a position to form the government. “We are somewhere between 300 and 310… this is minus the last phase… we are in a comfortable position. This time, we went to the people with 10 years of track record and 25 years of a powerfully positive agenda,” he said, IE reported.
Ruling out the possibility of Narendra Modi retiring, as was being made out by his opponents, he said not only will Modi be sworn in as Prime Minister again in June but “even in 2029, the Prime Minister will lead us”.
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There was neither “a rule” nor a provision in the party’s constitution, he said, which laid down the retirement age at 75, either for the PM or for anyone else. “Certain decisions were made in a certain situation; when that situation doesn’t exist, those rules aren’t there,” he said.
Shah also said that a strong opposition is good for the country. “Yes, I accept that, but it’s the people who will decide. We cannot create it. It cannot happen because you wish it to happen,” he said.
Shah also said that by ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’, he actually meant India to get rid of Congress party in terms of ideology. “But even that (ideology) isn’t there (in the Congress) now,” he said.
The Home Minister said that the opposition’s weakness has nothing to do with the Prime Minister Modi’s sense of mission for the nation. He also listed reasons for the Prime Minister’s popularity.
“From raising the standard of living of 60 crore people in 10 years; empowering them with a house, toilet, water, Rs-5 lakh insurance scheme, 5 kg food grains, gas cylinder…Modiji has helped build self-confidence and self-determination,” he told The Indian Express.
The day Covid-19 was identified, Shah said, the Prime Minister decided on the vaccine mission and used technology to protect 132 crore people. “Elsewhere, even in advanced nations, the fight against Corona sputtered because there the government fought while here the government and the people fought together,” he said.
Asked about there being no Muslim BJP MP in a mainline party that had based itself and was now aiming for a third term in office, Shah said, “I don’t believe in appeasement. None of our schemes is based on religion, we haven’t discriminated against anyone.”
Looking ahead at the issue of delimitation due in 2026, which is exercising the southern states as they fear their numbers in Parliament (in relation to the northern states) will go down and diminish their clout, he said he wanted to assure the South that “no injustice” will be done.
“I have said that there won’t be any anyway (injustice) with the South, that’s the BJP’s decision. How do we do it, we will sit down with everyone and discuss. We will not defer delimitation.” He also said Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in September this year – “I have said in Parliament that elections will be held.”
Expressing satisfaction at the voter turnout in Kashmir in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, he said it was a vindication of the BJP’s policy of abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution.
Elections to 486 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats had been conducted by the end of phase 6 polling on Saturday. Voting for the seventh phase will be conducted on June 1. Counting of votes will be done on June 4.
The BJP-led NDA, seeking a record third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has set a target of winning 400 seats this election. The ruling alliance is being challenged by the opposition parties led by the Congress under the banner of the INDIA bloc.