No decision yet on BJP-BJD tie-up, will beat 2014 record in UP: Amit Shah

A decision is yet to be taken on a possible alliance with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will increase its numbers in Odisha this year, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday, also attacking the Opposition over the recently implemented Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.

A decision is yet to be taken on a possible alliance with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will increase its numbers in Odisha this year, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday, also attacking the Opposition over the recently implemented Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.

Union home minister Amit Shah.

Shah said that the BJP will get more than 25 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, which has 42 Lok Sabha seats, this year, and will break its 2014 record of 71 seats (73 including allies) in Uttar Pradesh.

“We don’t know yet if we will have an alliance (with BJD) or not. If we do, we will work as allies, and if we don’t, we will fight to form the government alone. A decision will be taken by our national president,” Shah said at News18’s Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi.

“People of Odisha love Prime Minister Narendra Modi very much. We will have many more seats there (Odisha) this time,” he added.

Odisha will vote in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls simultaneously in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1. There are 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly seats on which elections will be fought, with the BJD, BJP and Congress as key opponents.

In 2019, the BJP had won eight and the BJD 12 Lok Sabha seats. In the assembly, the BJD won a landslide victory with 112 seats and the BJP won 23 seats. Shah’s comments came amid mounting speculation about a possible alliance between the two parties that have often collaborated on key bills in Parliament.

Shah also spoke about the possibility of an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

”It will be clear in the next two to three days. Negotiations are on. We want all NDA (National Democratic Alliance) parties to come together,” he said.

In Bihar, he said the BJP will fight the polls as “big brother” with more seats than its allies. On Monday, the NDA announced the five-party coalition’s seat-sharing arrangement in the electorally crucial state of Bihar, whose 40 Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls in seven phases beginning April 19.

The BJP will fight 17 seats, the same as 2019, and its principal ally, the Janata Dal (United) will fight in 16, one lower than 2019. It is for the first time that the BJP would be contesting more seats than the JD(U).

Shah said that the party will improve on its 2019 showing in Bengal. “Since 2017, we have increased our strength in Bengal, in assembly elections and Lok Sabha both. We became the prime opposition in Bengal and increased our seats from two to 18 in Lok Sabha. I can say with confidence that we will get more than 25 seats this election,” he said.

The party won 18 out of 42 seats in Bengal during 2019 Lok Sabha polls, its best-ever showing.

Shah accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of not allowing the central government’s schemes to reach the poor in Bengal and allowing the mistreatment of women.

“Look what happened to women in Sandeshkhali under a female CM. The party (TMC) people themselves attacked women. They should be ashamed. I urge women of Bengal to teach a lesson to Mamata Banerjee (by giving votes to BJP),” Shah said.

HT reached out to at least three TMC leaders for a comment but did not get one immediately.

Asked about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Shah said it was a long-standing issue which the party cannot abandon. “UCC has been our agenda since 1950. We cannot move away from this. We believe that in a secular country, there should be one law for all. UCC is the BJP’s promise to the people of the country.”

Last month, the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand enacted a law for implementation of UCC to ensure uniform rules for personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and property rights for all citizens irrespective of faith. Other BJP-ruled states are expected to bring similar laws.

Shah criticised Opposition parties for spreading misinformation about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, for which rules were issued earlier this month, allowing refugees from six minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to apply for Indian citizenship.

“The Opposition has been misleading people that CAA will take away the citizenship of the country’s minorities. CAA is only for giving citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, not to take away any citizenship. I want to assure the Muslims that they don’t need to be afraid. This law is not to snatch away citizenship,” Shah said. On electoral bonds, Shah said that scrapping of the scheme will lead to the return of black money in election funding.

“There is an allegation that we have received a lot of donations. This is false. We have got ₹6,200 crore, whereas ‘Indi Alliance’ (referring to INDIA bloc) led by Rahul Gandhi has received more than ₹6,000 crore. While we have 303 seats, we have governments in 17 states, how many seats does the INDI alliance have?” he asked.

The Supreme Court recently struck down the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional and asked the State Bank of India and Election Commission of India to disclose all details of bonds purchased and encashed from April 2019. To be sure, the BJP received roughly 50% of the total funds through electoral bonds, according to data provided uploaded by the Election Commission of India recently.

“I respect the Supreme Court decision but it is my personal opinion that black money will return after abolition of electoral bonds. That is why Congress is against electoral bonds because they have been the biggest beneficiary of cash flow of funds during elections,” he added.

He refuted the allegations that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was targeting opposition parties. “It’s a lie. Only 5% of property confiscated or seized by ED belongs to political leaders. Anyone who is corrupt will be punished and will be sent to jail,” Shah asserted.