New Delhi: After creating history in Assam and Kerala in the Assembly Elections 2016, the Bharatiya Janata Party is gearing up for Lok Sabha Elections due in 2019.
The Assembly Election Results declared on May 19, 2016 were an affirmation of BJP president Amit Shah’s campaign strategy and a revival of the national party in the state Assembly Elections after the Bihar and Delhi debacles.
The BJP, backed by two allies, crushed the Congress in many of its traditional bastions to script its maiden election victory in Assam. This is for the first time that the BJP could form a government on its own in the country's northeastern region.
Also, the party's improved performance in West Bengal and Kerala have not only come as a major reprieve to Prime Minister Narendra Modi but would also help empower party president Amit Shah, whose capabilities as "poll strategist" had come under scathing attack.
Talking to The Times of India, Amit Shah said the Assembly poll results have proved that “whoever goes with the Congress loses. Like in Tamil Nadu, the DMK's success ratio is 56%. The Congress success is 19%. The Congress pulled down the coalition.”
He further said that the BJP's base and work is on the rise in seven states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam. “I am confident that by the time 2019 comes we will convert our support into seats.”
Shah further hailed the NDA government's schemes. “The PM turned the Petroleum Ministry, seen as a corporate ministry, into a people welfare ministry. The Jan Dhan accounts were used for direct transfer of subsidies (Pahal) and this stopped theft of subsidy worth Rs 14,000 crore. Then the PM made a moral appeal to the well-off to voluntarily give up subsidies on LPG.”
“No one can provide full employment for 100 crore people. Self-employment is the solution. So, we have the Mudra bank. In the past year, Rs 1 lakh crore loans were disbursed. In the current fiscal, this will go to Rs 1.8 lakh crore. Some 5 crore youths will be employed.”
The elated BJP president noted that there have been “seven elections since the Modi sarkar assumed office. Of these, we won five, in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and now Assam. We increased our votes in Bihar. In Delhi, we lost, but saved our vote percentage.”
The Congress party is now left with power only in six states -- Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. It is to form government in Puducherry, after winning the elections there.
