After defeat, Shah says BJP analysing UP by-poll results at booth level

Amit Shah said "We are not taking Uttar Pradesh results lightly. But at the same time, the mandate on two seats cannot be seen as countrywide mandate."

(Photo: AP/ File)

New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday said that a dedicated team of his party was analysing the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha by-poll results "at the booth level" and that his party was set to get a "bigger mandate than the 2014 one" in the next Lok Sabha polls. "We are not taking Uttar Pradesh results lightly. We are analysing it minutely. But at the same time, the mandate on two seats cannot be seen as countrywide mandate. Twelve lakh voters do not represent 125 crore people of India," Shah said in an interview with Times Now channel. He brushed aside a question on the conjecture in the public that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may do something drastic -- such as the building of Ram temple in Ayodhya or another surgical strike across LoC -- to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, saying the BJP did not need to do any such thing. "If you remember in 2014, it was being said that Narendra Modi cannot be made the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, or if he is made he would not be able to lead the NDA..the NDA would fall apart etc. But now the same Narendra Modi has been running a successful government for the last four years. "We do not live in the air, we are connected to the ground. The Narendra Modi government has done the work on the ground from the Ujjawal Yojana and the Kisan Fasal Bima Yojana to Mudra Yojana and providing electricity to every village. So we are confident we will get a bigger mandate than the 2014 one," Shah said. He also attacked the Congress for indulging in caste politics and creating divisions on the lines of caste by trying to recognise Lingayats as a separate minority community different from the Hindus.