New Delhi, March 5
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said it is confident of retaining the states it already has – remarks lifted from its marathon election campaign in five states: Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand.
Polling for the last phase of the seven-phase polling ended on Saturday. In the last phase of seven-phase polling, polling will be held in 54 assembly seats in Mau, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and Bhadohi districts on Monday.
Counting of votes will take place on March 10.
BJP national president JP Nadda told reporters at a press conference that he was confident that the work of BJP governments would be converted into votes. He said that the pro-poor policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have received a positive response.
“We all saw this while campaigning in these elections,” he said.
Nadda claimed that the projects helped generate employment but did not give numbers to substantiate his claims.
“We believe that the BJP is coming back to power with a good majority in all the four states,” he said.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is in power in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The BJP allied with the Naga People’s Front and a National People’s Party from the Lok Janshakti Party in Manipur, despite the fact that the Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats in the 60-member assembly.
question of punjab
In Punjab, Nadda said, his party received a “positive response” and was likely to exceed his own expectations. Punjab remains an elusive base for a party that has made significant gains in formerly unknown areas such as West Bengal.
The BJP forged an alliance with former Congressman Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress to fight for the 117 assembly seats in Punjab.
“This is the first time that we contested on 65 seats. All our efforts have shown a positive response in Punjab,” Nadda said. “Earlier, we were limited to 23 seats and NDA was confined to religion.”
He said that his party will now strengthen the booth level cadre of BJP in Punjab.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who is considered the BJP’s master strategist for the elections, said his party fought the elections “in a scientific manner”.
“In the BJP, from the PM to the booth level, everyone campaigned in an organized manner to highlight issues and bring their achievements to the fore,” Shah said.
He said his party was confident of retaining its states and improving its position in Punjab.
“We saw it in the reaction of people to the prime minister’s rallies in all the states, which gives us confidence that the BJP is returning to power in a big way in Uttar Pradesh,” Shah said.
nil in UP
Nadda said that BJP has no equal in Uttar Pradesh.
Asked if he was ready for an alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Choudhary, Shah said his party was confident of forming the government in the state with a “thumping majority” (massive mandate).
“We will not need anyone’s help to form the government in UP,” he said.
It was a few months before Chowdhury publicly rejected Shah’s invitation to join the NDA, choosing to contest with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party instead.