UP polls: No post-poll alliance with BSP or any party, says Amit Shah

Varanasi: Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Wednesday ruled out any post-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or any other party in the event of a hung assembly in Uttar Pradesh, confident that the party will get a “full majority”.

As UP gears up for the fourth phase of the seven-phase assembly elections on Thursday, Shah, 52 , also said that the BJP not naming a chief ministerial candidate was part of the party’s poll “strategy”.

“Kisi se bhi haath milane ka dur-dur tak koi swaal nahin uthatha (there is no question by far of joining hands with any party),” he said when asked during a wide-ranging interview to PTI if the BJP would be 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 UP 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 UP, 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.

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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 UP 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 UP, 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.

“In Goa, Uttarakhand and UP, we will form governments with full majority. It is ‘trikoniay muqablaa hai (triangular contest) in Punjab, so it is difficult to make a guess who will win,” he added.