It would be wrong to surmise that Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is losing relevance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said in an exclusive interview to Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, adding that it is Akhilesh Yadav who has deviated from the real issues in UP elections 2022.
“The BSP has maintained its relevance. I believe they will get votes. I don’t know how much of it will convert into seats but it will get votes," Shah said. Asked if he thinks the Jatav vote-bank will stick with the BSP, the senior BJP leader said, “Muslims will also support them, in a lot of seats."
But Amit Shah refused to speculate whether this would play in the BJP’s favour. “Benefit and loss does not happen like this. It is seat-specific. It cannot be measured like this. But it’s not correct to say that the BSP’s relevance has decreased."
Asked about the possibility of a post-poll alliance with Mayawati, Shah said: “But there is no need of an alliance, we will come to power with full majority. Support is needed of all parties later to do good work, even SP’s is needed. Opposition’s creative support is always needed. But there is no need for alliance with anyone to form a government. The alliance we have is good."
The Union Home Minister also contended that the election had moved beyond religion and caste. Asked why the two then made repeated appearance in election speeches, Shah said: “There is a tradition that was started by the Congress, which the SP and BSP have cemented, and were successful on these fronts in the past too. But I think now, that it’s slowly decreasing."
Countering Akhilesh Yadav’s statement that the BJP was “avoiding the real issues" by talking about appeasement instead of price rise and unemployment, Amit Shah said: “Akhilesh ji should talk in terms of data, whether we are avoiding the real issues or if he is. The whole world has witnessed rise in prices after Covid-19; to an extent it’s here too. However, Modi ji has controlled it to a great extent. In the 7.5 years of Modi Sarkar, we have controlled inflation for six years. After Covid-19, the global market scenario has been affected. Whatever is imported has a high price, and that is reflected in domestic prices. It’s a temporary phase."
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Asked about Akhilesh’s Brahmin outreach and promise to celebrate Parshuram Jayanti if the SP comes to power, the minister said, “I would call this deviation from issues. To indulge is caste politics is to deviate, right? We are talking of the poor, of city voters, of middle-class voters. We are not talking of caste."
Amit Shah said the BJP has made Uttar Pradesh among the top economies in India within five years, whereas the SP and the BSP couldn’t achieve it in 15 years.
“After 15 years of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party rule, UP was 8th or 9th in economic performance among the states. If you just count the consumption of 22 crore people, your economy should be at number 1 position. In just five years, we were able to get it from the 8th-9th position to the number 2 position in India. And within just two years, after the BJP gets elected, we will get UP to number 1 position," he said.
“This is a big achievement, UP’s GDP was Rs 10,90,000 crore, now the state’s GDP is Rs 2,131,000 crore. In just five years, we have doubled it. The state was 14th in Ease of Doing Business, now we are on number 2 position. Unemployment was at 17.3%, now it’s at 4.1%. An estimated 1.61 crore jobs have been created," he added.
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