BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday dubbed Congress, SP and BSP as “KASAB”, adding yet another acronym in the Uttar Pradesh poll campaign, and said development will elude the State till “KASAB is laid to rest”.
Elaborating on the acronym at an election meeting here, he said,
“In this election, people of Uttar Pradesh should get rid of KASAB. What I mean by KASAB is — KA for Congress, SA for Samajwadi Party and B for BSP”
Shah made these comments while seeking to draw a parallel between the rival parties and the Mumbai attack perpetrator Ajmal Kasab.
Later in an interview to PTI, the BJP President Amit Shah ruled out any post-poll alliance with the BSP or any other party in the event of a hung assembly in Uttar Pradesh, and was confident that his party will get a “full majority”.
As Uttar Pradesh gears up for the fourth phase of the seven-phase Assembly elections tomorrow, Shah, also said that the BJP not naming a chief ministerial candidate was part of the party’s poll “strategy”.
“There is no question of joining hands with any party,” he said when asked if the BJP was willing to ally with the BSP or any other party to form a government in the politically crucial State, if it fell short of a majority.
The comments by Shah come against the backdrop of some poll surveys and political experts projecting a hung assembly in the State given that all the three players — the SP-Congress, BSP and BJP — have a robust set-up and a loyal social base in the State.
Shah, who has campaigned extensively in Uttar Pradesh, acknowledges the importance of the poll outcome in the State to 2019 Lok Sabha polls but at the same time he feels that the results would be even more crucial for the country’s development.
Working hard to recreate the magic of 2014 that gave BJP 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the face of stiff competition from the SP-Congress alliance and Mayawati’s BSP, the BJP strongman answered a wide range of questions on the elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other States and their importance to the party as well as to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has also campaigned intensely in the country’s biggest State.
Shah expressed confidence that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa with “full majority” but is unwilling to make a prediction about Punjab, noting that it was a triangular contest there involving the SAD-BJP, Congress and AAP.