Will win 2019 polls with even bigger mandate than 2014: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah today exuded confidence that his party will win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with even bigger mandate than what it got in 2014.

Praising the Narendra Modi government, he said it has send out a positive message to people that the BJP-led regime was decisive.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as most popular leader of the country after country's Independence, there is no doubt in this," he told reporters during a press conference.

With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he is on a 110- day country-wide tour, which began in Jammu last month. Shah is travelling across the states to strategise and strengthen the party at the grass-root level. He said that the BJP, which started with ten members, today has got 11 crore membership, making it world's biggest political party.

The BJP president said the party had done well in the recent assembly polls in the states.

With the BJP-led NDA government soon completing three years in office, Shah said, "In this country dynasty, casteism and appeasement had been plaguing the country's politics for a long time".

"The nation's politics has moved forward under the BJP leadership to get rid of these ills," he said.

Shah said that the results of assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand, where BJP got absolute majority, "has proved that people have whole heartedly accepted and appreciated three year-rule of the Modi government."

"We have been in power for nearly three years now, but even our political opponents have not been able to point any finger at us on corruption, which is a biggest achievement of our government," he said.

The BJP chief said the NDA government worked for uplift of poor, downtrodden, labourers and farmers and also took bold steps like demonetisation to contain spread of black money to a large extent and boost the country's economy.

Shah described as "a very big achievement" of the government the order of International Court of Justice (ICJ) which stayed the execution of former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Asked about his reaction about a Pakistani-origin lawyer, who represented Pakistan in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the ICJ had been hired by the UPA government in 2004 to argue an arbitration case, Shah said, "The nation knows about the character of the Congress, what should I say?"

Further, when asked about the Jadhav case in ICJ, he said, "I feel that Harish Salve presented the side of Kulbhushan Jadhav and government convincingly at the international forum and it is a very big relief for the family of Jadhav and for country. I feel that it is a very big achievement of the Government of India."

Asked about the farmers' suicide in the recent past, Shah said, "The central government is commited to save the country's farmers. But the deterioration that had taken place place (over past several years) could not be set right in one day".

On the allegations of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVM) by the AAP, Shah said, "I want to ask the AAP leaders that they got 67 seats out of 70 (in Delhi assembly polls) from which EVMs, you just ask them".
Address the media, Shah said that from north to south, BJP is increasing its base.

"In Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura, we are concentrating on these states and we have been able to garner the people's support there," he said.

Speaking about the BJP's presence in the country, he said, "In various Vidhan Sabhas around the country, there are 1387 BJP MLAs, 13 governments in various states are of the BJP and at four places we are in power with our allies."

He said the country's economy "which was in bad shape during the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government is today fastest growing economy in the world."

"On the GST, we undertook the exercise to bring all parties and stakeholders together and to bring it as law. It is also a big achievement of our government," he said.

He said when the BJP came to power, there were 60 per cent people who did not have even a single bank account.

"Today, 28.7 crore bank accounts have been opened under Jan Dhan account. Under Jan Dhan scheme, there is not a single family now which does not have a bank account," he said.

"We were committed to clean politics and in this regard we have taken steps to rein in black money," he said, pointing out "bold step" on demonetisation taken in this regard. "We started a campaign against shell companies who were involved in black money," he said.

He said over 90 lakh tax payers have been enrolled within one year, which is biggest figure after Independence.

He said when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, "then he had said the BJP government will be of poor, labourers and farmers".

"We have taken a number of steps for the farmers and launched many schemes for them. The government constructed four crore toilets for the poor," he said, elaborating out several pro-people initiatives of the Modi government.