Strong Modi wave in country; NDA all set to cross 400 mark: Amit Shah

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the BJP’s principal strategist, asserts that the NDA will reach its target of a bumper majority and form the next government at the Centre. He alleges the Congress wants to snatch away the reservation given to SCs, STs and OBCs and give it away to the Muslim community—without conducting any survey—citing Karnataka and Telangana as examples of its “appeasement” politics.

On the other hand, he claims, “the BJP has never ever wanted to amend Constitution for altering reservation provisions.” In the midst of hectic campaigning.

To buttress his point, he points out that the BJP/NDA has had the strength in Parliament to amend the Constitution for the past 10 years. “We never did, as that was never our intention. What we believe in, we always put out in our ‘sankalp patra’—like Article 370, Ram Mandir or UCC. We don’t work surreptitiously.”

This time, a cleaning up of the electoral rolls—removing those who have died, etc.—perhaps could not be done properly. It’s usually a routine exercise carried out between general elections. In my own colony in Gandhinagar, the names of over 14 voters who have died are still on the rolls. It seems to me that might account for the low polling to some extent. Secondly, in many constituencies, the people feel there is no contest. In the North, East, West and in parts of the South, this feeling of there being ‘no real contest’ is affecting turnouts. Anyway, we are leading in wherever voting has happened so far.

This time, a cleaning up of the electoral rolls—removing those who have died, etc.—perhaps could not be done properly. It’s usually a routine exercise carried out between general elections. In my own colony in Gandhinagar, the names of over 14 voters who have died are still on the rolls. It seems to me that might account for the low polling to some extent. Secondly, in many constituencies, the people feel there is no contest. In the North, East, West and in parts of the South, this feeling of there being ‘no real contest’ is affecting turnouts. Anyway, we are leading in wherever voting has happened so far.