SP-BSP alliance will be challenge for BJP: Amit Shah
New Delhi, May 25: BJP President Amit Shah on Friday admitted that an alliance between the BSP and SP in Uttar Pradesh will be a challenge for the BJP in 2019 but asserted that the BJP will defeat the Congress either in Amethi or Rae Bareli.
"If the BSP and SP contest in alliance, it would be a challenge to us. But we are sure that we will win either one seat: Amethi or Rae Bareli," he told journalists here on the occassion of the completion of four years of the Modi government.
The BJP chief said it did not want to give up its alliance with old time ally Shiv Sena in Maharashtra but insisted that the BJP would have no option if the Sena wanted to part ways with it.
"In 2019, the BJP will fight with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. We don't want to oust them from the NDA. But if they go out, it's their will. We are ready for every situation," he said.
Shah said the opposition parties were aligning with like-minded parties as they feel they may not be able to defeat the NDA in 2019 elections on their own.
"They all fought against us in 2014 too but failed to stop us. They all have their presence in their respective states. Even if they come together they won't be able to defeat us," he said.
The BJP chief said the BJP would win at least 80 seats in 2019 which it could not win in the last election.
"We will win such seats which were not with us in northeast, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and many other places," he said.
The BJP President also maintained that the Chief Ministers in Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will not be changed.
He said the new BJP President in Rajasthan would be declared after May 26.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
