BJP president Amit Shah on Monday declared his party’s victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as the triumph of performance and development over a “negative campaign” based on “casteism, nepotism and appeasement politics” run by the rival Congress.
Mr. Shah played down the reduction in seats in Gujarat, saying it was a creditable performance beating the anti-incumbency factor after being in power for 22 years.
At a press conference at the party headquarters here on Monday, Mr. Shah thanked BJP workers and the people of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and expressed satisfaction with the fact that there was a gap of 8% between the BJP and the Congress in vote share. “We have increased our vote share in comparison to 2012 in the teeth of a highly negative, casteist campaign run by the Congress and managed to get elected for the sixth time in the State,” he said.
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He denied that Patidar leader Hardik Patel’s campaign dented the party’s chances in Saurashtra.
He said the goal of 150-plus seats in Gujarat was not unreasonable in itself, but the “negative campaigning” by the Congress had not been factored in. The BJP held a meeting of its parliamentary board of which Prime Minister Modi is also a member on Monday evening and deputed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and party general secretary Saroj Pande as central observers in Gujarat and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rural Development Minister Narendra Tomar in Himachal Pradesh.