Guwahati: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that an internal assessment of the BJP has suggested that the party and its allies have crossed the mark of 100 seats in two out of seven phases of Lok Sabha polling that were conducted on April 19 and April 26.
"We have got big electoral success in Assam, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. The initial trend also suggests that BJP has also got very good response in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. So we are moving rightly towards our target of 400 plus seats in this elections," Shah said while addressing the media in Guwahati. The senior BJP leader took part in a road show in Guwahati on Monday evening to campaign for the BJP candidate for Gauhati Lok Sabha seat, Bijuli Kalita Medhi, who is facing Mira Borthakur of Congress.
Voting for the Gauhati Lok Sabha seat is scheduled for May 7.
Congress twisting 400+ target
Stating that Congress is trying to twist BJP's target of 400 plus seats, Shah said, "Congress says our 400 plus target is for changing the Constitution. They have also started spreading lies that after getting 400 plus seats, BJP will do away with the reservations. We got absolute majority in 2014 and 2019. In the past 10 years, we did not use the absolute majority to throttle democracy by imposing emergency like Congress. We used the majority to remove Article 370, triple talaq, the British era laws and constructed Ram Mandir after getting the clearance from the Supreme Court," Shah said.
Will remove religion-based reservations:
Stating that Congress was spreading lies that BJP would remove reservations after getting 400 plus seats, Shah said that the saffron party is in support of reservations for the SCs, STs and OBCs and will continue to protect such reservations. "Congress, on the other hand, gave reservations based on religion. After coming to power in Andhra Pradesh, Congress introduced reservations to Muslims, thereby reducing reservations for the OBCs. In Karnataka too, Congress gave OBC status to Muslims and provided four per cent reservations quota. This affected reservations of the backward classes," he said.
Shah said that the BJP is against reservations based on religion as the same is against the Constitution.
"We will end reservations based on religion in those states and give justice to the backward classes. Congress is now spreading a fake video of my speech in order to create confusion among the voters. Congress party lowered the standard of politics after Rahul Gandhi after Rahul Gandhi took command of the party," Shah said.
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