Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah 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”. Shah also rejected the Opposition charge that PM Narendra Modi sought to inject communal colour in his recent poll campaign speeches.
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”. 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.
