Uttar Pradesh will vote for change, people will elect BJP: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: The vote in Uttar Pradesh will be for change… the voters’ choice will be Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)… and BJP’s fight is with Samajwadi Party (SP), a supremely confident Amit Shah told ET in an exclusive and exhaustive interview, the first given by the powerful BJP president on the coming UP election.
Sounding sure of a decisive victory, Shah told ET: “Janata ne parivartan ka mood banaya hai, aur jab dibbey khulenge aap yaad rakhna (People are in the mood for change, and remember what I said when votes are counted)”.

Shah spoke extensively on his plans and strategies for the crucial state election, as well as on a host of national political issues, from the Dalit question to the change of guard in Gujarat, and from the BJP-Congress relationship to government-judiciary ties.

On UP, Shah was firm that the fight is between BJP and SP. “Our fight is with SP,” the BJP chief said and added that the media is probably not getting this. “Meri baat ko media hamesha thoda late hi gambheerta se leta hai (media usually takes some time to take my points seriously),” Shah said.

He categorically denied high-profile defections from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were indications that BJP had weakened Mayawati’s outfit.

Read Also: ​ We will end BSP-SP power cycle in UP: Amit Shah, BJP President

“BJP hasn’t weakened BSP. The internal issues of BSP are the reason why the party is weakened now,” Shah insisted. The BJP president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “good governance” is the reason the party can take a message of change to voters in Uttar Pradesh, and significantly, laid out a model of economic development that was clearly bottom-up, with emphasis on providing services to the poorest.

“Meri party ka mool siddhant…antyodaya se hoti hai. Jab antim ka uday karoge tab desh ka uday hoga (My party’s fundamental view is that the poorest must rise first. When those at the bottom of the social scale do better, then the country develops),” Shah told ET.

This political-economic model was emphasised by Shah both in context of changing UP and recent Dalit protests.

“No other government has done as much for UP as the Narendra Modi government,” Shah said. The BJP chief doesn’t see any evidence of spontaneity in Dalit agitation. “(Dalit) protests in Gujarat are 100% politically motivated,” Shah said, posing thereby a strong political challenge to one current narrative, championed by both Opposition and some commentators, that the protests are ground-level questions directed at BJP.

His view on university agitations was also a political challenge to critics: “Young people in universities do agitate…they always have…too much is being made out of all this.” Shah said his UP strategy is guided by the belief that if the state changes, India can hit double-digit growth easily, and that his job was to communicate that BJP is the party that can deliver this.

On the question of whether BJP will have a chief ministerial candidate, the party chief said no decision has been made. And on his party’s main national political rival, Congress, and its chances in UP, he was confident in his prediction: “I think the chances of Congress reviving in UP are very bleak.” Shah staunchly denied that former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel was removed. His position is that she had voluntarily asked to be relieved of her job. “I have excellent relations with Anandiben,” he said.

BJP-CONG TIES
On the BJP-Congress relationship, Shah said, “Our relations are exactly as the relations between the ruling party and the Opposition should be.” The two national parties have had a fractious relationship and only recently, with an agreement on the goods and services tax (GST) Bill, was there a sign of substantial cooperation. Shah did not see any differences between BJP and Peoples Democratic Party, its alliance partner in Jammu & Kashmir, on handling the situation in the Valley. “On Kashmir, if you look at Mehbooba Mufti’s statement, you will see that it is on the lines of whatever other political parties have said,” he told ET.

Shah also expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance government will have a long term. “Maine apne karyakartaon ko bola hai ki iss sarkar ka banney ka tabhi arth hai agar yeh sarkar 20-25 saal kaam kare (I have told our workers that the formation of this government makes sense if it gets to work for 20-25 years). Aap second par mat rukiye (Don’t stop at just the second term).”

And asked how he feels on being the ‘second most powerful man in the country’, Shah dismissed the suggestion. “Is desh mein first powerful person hi koi nahi hai. Pradhan Mantri khud ko Pradhan Sevak kehte hain to second ka koi sawaal hi nahin aata (There’s no first powerful person in this country. The prime minister calls himself the first servant of the people… where is the question of a second most powerful person).”