Ready for BJP versus all in 2019: Amit Shah

New Delhi :  BJP President Amit Shah on Monday accepted the challenge of opposition parties coming together against his party for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and said it has a strong booth-level orgnaisational network and the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing party’s state incharges, state presidents and other office-bearers at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here, Shah reviewed the organisational programmes taken up by the party and also set the tone for the next Lok Sabha elections a year before they are due.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to win. There is an upbeat atmosphere in the party. We are lucky to have 11 crore members, around 330 MPs and over 1,800 MLAs. We reached this stage due to organisational strength. Now, many of the parties have started following us and are running membership drive,” Shah said, according to BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.

Citing main reasons for Congress’s downfall, Shah said: “There were two main reasons — first, their arrogance that they are in power and they will remain in power, and second, their ruining the party’s organisation.

“But it (organisation) is our strength that we have reached a stage where an attempt is being made to make the 2019 general elections BJP vs all. This gives us pleasure and we like the challenge.”

He said that the BJP-led government has done lots of work that can be described as Modi government’s achievements by party cadres. “They can proudly say that we have run a good government which has worked for the poor. ‘My government is a good government’ will be the attitude of party workers.”

He said that even if all the opposition parties unite, people of the country are with Modi.

“It is said about BJP that we don’t return to power after completing a term at the Centre. We have to break this myth in 2019 and prove that not only we know how to run a government, we also know how to make government and how to return to power. On the strength of cadres, we have to take the country forward,” Hussain quoted Shah as saying.

Shah said that 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be of the BJP and it will again return to power with greater strength.

“An atmosphere created against the BJP that it will be defeated by opponents and after BJP’s victory, they cite various reason for our win. We are lucky to have the leadership of Modi but we also have the strength of organisation which is at booth level. We can’t get satisfaction until we win states like West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, besides winning 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

Another BJP Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi quoted Shah as saying that there are many views over BJP’s continuous victory.

“Political pundits are anxious about our win. Political opponents see it with exclamation mark, the elite class is surprised to see our support base among downtrodden class, while the party cadres see it as self-pride.

“But he (Shah) also alerted them that satisfaction should not get converted into complacency. It is a long ideological battle and we have to elevate our building,” Shah said, according to Trivedi.

Published on: May 15, 2018 at 00:52 IST

IANS