Modi is 'Making India', Cong is 'Breaking India': Shah

Eyeing a mandate bigger than that of 2014 polls, BJP on Saturday positioned itself as one committed to "Making India" while dubbing Congress as a "Breaking India" party, giving indications to its campaign theme for the Lok Sabha elections.

While the party adopted the slogan of 'Ajey BJP' (Invincible BJP) during a meeting of national office bearers ahead of the two-day National Executive here, the party sought to take on the Opposition parties saying their grand alliance plans were an "eyewash, an illusion and is based on falsehood".

The broad indications of the BJP plans were given by party chief Amit Shah in his inaugural address when he touched upon issues like the "urban Naxals" and the recent arrests of activists accusing them of having links with Maoists, the controversial exercise of Assam's National Register of Citizens and triple talaq among other issues.

Asserting that the party would win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a mandate bigger than 2014 when it won 282 seats, he said, "Prime Minister Modi is working for Making India while Congress is indulging in Breaking India. They are working with the breaking India groups."

Providing details about Shah's speech, Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman told reporters, that the party chief said that they will retain states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and win new states like Mizoram and Telangana which are going to polls later this year.

He said his party will easily win in 19 states where they have governments. “We were in second place in states like Bengal, Odisha and Telangana. Anti-incumbency always benefits those who are in second place. We will perform well in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu also,” Seetharaman quoted Shah as saying on the Lok Sabha polls.

While rubbishing the opposition gang-up against BJP, Shah claimed that his party had taken head on all the parties that have come together post-2014 and have defeated them. "They are playing disruptionist politics...they brought a no-confidence motion. None of the two conditions -- government losing majority or anger against the government -- for going ahead with a no-trust motion was not met. We defeated them," he said.

Another issue on which BJP aims to take on Congress was the triple talaq with Shah saying, "many Islamic countries have cleared it. It is not an issue in those countries. But here in Rajya Sabha, the Bill is stuck due to Congress' hypocritical behaviour and we have to pass it."

As the Opposition is taking on the government on the economic front, Shah wanted his cadre to "challenge (former Finance Minister) P Chidambaram and Co. them on facts" to make it clear that the Modi government was faring better than the previous government.

On the issue of arrests of activists, Shah accused Congress of indulging in vote bank politics on it. He congratulated Maharashtra government and its Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the arrests.

Shah's speech also dealt with A B Vajpayee's legacy in his speech as the party wanted to cash in on the goodwill the late leader had across the country.