BJP National President Amit Shah has expressed his dissatisfaction with the party Karnataka leaders over the recent defeat in the bye-polls. He also enquired about the details of AP CM Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to Bengaluru.

Amit Shah pulled up the party leaders over the defeat of BJP nominee in Bellary by a huge margin of around 2.4 lakh votes. He asked as to what caused BJP to lose Bellary seat which was its stronghold for over one and half decades.

The BJP has always considered Karnataka as its most favoured state in South India but successive defeats in assembly elections and bye-polls came as a big blow to the party. Amit Shah’s calculations to strengthen BJP in southern states have gone completely wrong.

Amit Shah has told senior BJP leader Yeddyurappa and others how discouraging bye-poll results were at a time when the party is preparing for elections in five states.

Shah instructed party leaders to put the past behind and start early preparations for the 2019 general elections.

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Saturday ruled out any alliance with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the coming Assembly polls in the state and said the TRS owed an explanation to the people for imposing additional expenditure by going for early elections.

Replying to a query at a press conference Shah, who was here to launch the party’s election campaign, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during his speech in Parliament was in a different context and it cannot be interpreted as an understanding between the two parties.

He denied reports that the BJP was hand-in-glove with the TRS and alleged that it was the TRS and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) which were engaged in “shadow boxing”.

The BJP chief wanted to know why the TRS imposed early polls on the state when the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are slated to be held nine months later.

Shah said Rao had initially supported Modi’s idea of “one nation one election” but he was surprised when he suddenly changed his stand.

“Rao and TRS have forced a small state to bear expenditure of two elections. BJP believes that TRS has put an additional burden of crores of rupees on people to further its political interests,” said the BJP chief.

Shah said that the BJP was ready to give a tough fight to both the TRS and the opposition Congress in every constituency. He was confident that the BJP will emerge as a strong and decisive force in the state.

Shah said there was no chance of the TRS getting a fresh mandate. 

“If the TRS government comes back to power, it will continue its politics of appeasement,” he said slamming it for passing a resolution to provide 12 per cent reservation to Muslims and sending it to the Centre for its approval.

Claiming that the Modi government provided Rs.2.3 lakh crore to Telangana during the last four years against the Rs 15,000 crore given during the Congress rule, Shah said the BJP showed no discrimination towards any state but was opposed to the politics of appeasement. 

Days after BJP President Amit Shah vowed to uproot the Trinamool Congress regime from West Bengal and claimed his party would win a majority of the state’s Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections, political analysts raised doubts about the visit having a massive impact on the state’s politics.

Political Science teacher Udayan Bandopadhyay felt Shah’s claims of winning more than 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal did not hold much water as the BJP was now in a position to do well in a maximum of eight constituencies, notwithstanding its significant showing in the recent state rural body polls.

“I don’t think Shah’s visit or his claims bears a lot of significance because BJP is still not in a position to take its Lok Sabha tally to double figures here. They can do well in maximum eight seats and come out victorious in close to four or five seats like Purulia, Malda North, Raiganj, Alipurduar and Kolkata North unless something drastic happens,” Bandopadhyay, an associate professor in Bangabasi College, told IANS.

He said if the Left and Congress form an alliance in 2019, they would still manage to get a significant vote share in pockets of Bengal, ultimately enabling the Trinamool to emerge victorious in the bulk of the constituencies.

Claiming that the BJP chief’s speech in Purulia on Thursday lacked public connect, another political analyst, Biswanath Chakraborty, said the saffron outfit’s wrong political strategy in Bengal is consolidating Trinamool’s minority vote bank.

“Shah hailed Lord Ram at the end of his Purulia speech. I think such practises by BJP will only distance them from the Muslims in Bengal and if a party loses out on the entire Muslim vote bank, they’ve no prospect here,” Chakraborty, a professor of Rabindra Bharati University, told IANS. As per the 2011 census, Muslims form 27.1 per cent of the state’s population.

He said the BJP can put up a fight in merely six Lok Sabha constituencies including Alipurduar, Purulia, Bongaon and Krishnanagar, but not to the extent where they can win the seats.

“The political line taken by BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has worked well for them there, but the same strategy won’t pay dividends in Bengal,” pointed out.

West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress attacked Shah terming him a “rioteer” and said the people would give him a “befitting reply” for trying to foment lawlessness in the state.

“He is an empty vessel that sounds much. All his enthusiasm will come to an end after the 2019 general elections,” Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said.

The Left leadership also came out all guns blazing against Shah.

Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty dubbed Shah’s visit as a ‘secret ploy’ to fix his party’s electoral understanding with the Trinamool ahead of next year’s poll and questioned the slow progress in the CBI probe into the Narada video footage and the multi-billion rupee Saradha chit fund scandals.

“During his earlier visits to Bengal, Shah had said those accused in Narada and Saradha scam will be punished. But nothing has happened so far,” said Chakraborty, a senior leader of LF spearhead CPI-M.

Several Trinamool leaders were purportedly seen accepting money in exchange of a promise to favour a fictitious company during an alleged sting operation by the Narada news portal.

Echoing the Left, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury dismissed the BJP President’s strong words against Trinamool as an eyewash. “The two forces have covertly joined hands to wipe out the Congress from the state.”

“The nation is ready to give Shah and his party a befitting reply for their atrocities and anti-people policies and Bengal will be no exception in this matter,” he added.

The Bengal BJP leadership, however, claimed Shah’s visit has created a lot of enthusiasm across the state and sent shivers down the Trinamool Congress’ spine.

“Not just the people of BJP, but people of all political parties were excited about Shah’s visit. This has scared Trinamool so much that they even resorted to pulling down his hoardings and putting up their party banners in Hindi,” BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.

“Amit-ji said he will drive away the communists from Tripura. At that point no one believed him and he has kept his words. He has vowed to uproot ruling party from here. So the 2019 election will not be easy for Trinamool,” Sinha added.

BJP National President Amit Shah who visited Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, Tirumala has been the victim of SCS, and protests by TDP leaders. Locals who had come to know about Amit Shah’s visit gathered near Alipiri and started shouting ‘AP Special Category Status’ slogans.

While the TDP leaders staged a protest, the locals confronted the BJP leader, asking him why he had come to Tirumala, in-spite of doing injustice to the state. ‘PM Modi has forgotten about the promises he made in the presence of this very Lord’, said the TDP leaders, and locals.

As Amit Shah’s convoy was racing past the Tirumala Ghat Road, pilgrims who were en-route on foot to the temple, shouted SCS slogans all through the way. The local police who were expecting the protests took preventive measures. Police vans were patrolling throughout Tirumala and blocked protesters wherever possible.

Overall, Amit Shah had a bitter experience this time around visiting the TTD. As per protocol, the TDP officials made sure Amit Shah had completed the Darshan and handed the BJP leader prasadam.

Amit Shah not only serves as the BJP National President but also the most powerful after PM Modi in the national politics. Despite the presence of his contemporaries like Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, and other key senior BJP leaders, Amit Shah has carved a unique place for him in the BJP party.

Speaking to the press, Amit Shah has welcomed the ‘Federal Front’ proposal by KCR. ‘I wholeheartedly welcome the Third Front/Federal Front proposal by Telangana CM KCR.

Everyone has a right to form party alliances, and contest in the elections. In the past, many governments were formed because of alliances only’.

Talking about the Karnataka elections, Amit Shah said that the party is not believing the pre-polls, and alleged that the state government is circulating the Centre’s programs, as state-introduced programs.

Amit Shah’s comments on KCR’s ‘Federal Front’ once again show his political knack. If we can carefully observe his comments, it is clear that he is indirectly hinting that BJP is always ready to join with other parties and form the government at the Centre. Speculations surfaced that, Amit Shah’s softness towards ‘Federal Front’ is another sign of BJP – TRS behind-the-doors friendship.
There is no hesitation in terming Amit Shah as the modern-day political Bhishma.