New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asserted that the BJP will get a bigger win in opposition-ruled states due to a “positive mandate” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls, as he slammed the opposition’s criticism of the Election Commission as a ploy to cover up for its impending loss.
In an interview with PTI, Shah claimed that his party has not resorted to any religion-based campaign but insisted that if canvassing against reservation for Muslims, and reaching out to voters on the abolition of Article 370 and implementing a Uniform Civil Code is a religion-based campaign, then the BJP has done it and will continue doing so.
He dismissed the opposition’s criticism of the Election Commission for its handling of poll data and the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), saying that similar protocols and practices have been followed in previous Assembly polls, including Telangana, West Bengal, and Himachal Pradesh where the BJP lost.
“If those elections were fair, then this election is also fair. When you see defeat, you start crying in advance and try to find excuses to go abroad. This can’t go on and on. They want to go on vacation on June 6. So, they are telling something or the other,” he said.
The Congress’s questions about the polling process is aimed at covering up Rahul Gandhi’s failure, he said.
Shah said the opposition party had not offered any such suggestion at the customary all-party meeting called by the poll watchdog before the elections. “Whenever the opposition loses an election, they raise some questions. There is zero possibility of rigging in EVMs and they want an election which can be rigged.”
With six phases of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls over, the BJP’s key strategist said the party’s assertion that its alliance will cross the 400-seat mark when the poll results are out on June 4 is not merely a poll slogan but a well-thought-out goal.
He said, “We will surely cross 400 seats. We will also form governments in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh.” Assembly polls in the three states have been held alongside the Lok Sabha elections.