UP: Amit Shah dares Mulayam Singh to hold state elections

LUCKNOW: Beaming with confidence after a positive opinion poll reports about Maharashtra and Haryana polls, BJP national president Amit Shah dared 'Netaji' — Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav — to hold elections in UP any time and see the results.

"Jab karana hai chunav kara lein, kal, parson, do din baad, chaar din baad, sab pata lag jaayega Netaji ko (Let him hold the polls anytime, tomorrow, the day after, a couple of days later, Netaji will see the results)," Shah said at the BJP state headquarters on Friday, flanked by state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpayi and organisation secretary Sunil Bansal. He had stopped at the party office for a couple of hours before flying back to New Delhi after attending the first day of the three-day RSS national executive meeting being held at Saraswati Kunj at Nirala Nagar.

When asked the reason for his confidence at a time when the BJP failed to retain 8 out of 11 assembly seats during bypolls in UP, Shah said that won't be the story every time. The party is ready to contest election in UP, he said. Despite putting up a record-breaking performance of winning of 71 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 from the state, the BJP, a few months later surprisingly failed to retain majority of the assembly seats vacated by the party MLAs after they won Lok Sabha election. While Shah was the state in charge during the Lok Sabha polls, both he and Modi avoided coming to the state during the bypolls

On the faceless UP BJP, Shah said everything would be visible once the elections are announced. "Face-wace, hathi, ghode sab aajayenge, woh koi problem nahin hogi, chunaav hone toh deejiye (A party face won't be a problem, let the polls be announced)," a relaxed Shah said.

Putting the onus of elaborating on the details of his meeting with Sangh functionaries on the RSS spoeksperson, Shah said he was here to report about the party's working and that he did. Shah, according to RSS sources, delved in detail about the party's performance and the strategy during Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections and also discussed about party's planning for Jharkand and Jammu and Kashmir polls.
He also held talks with a some senior RSS functionaries on Mission UP 2017 and the party's strategy for it. Expressing hope of a good performance during elections at Haryana and Maharashtra, Shah, however, avoided predicting number of seats, saying: "Just wait for a few days."