BJP open to support from all parties: Amit Shah

With the Lok Sabha poll results just a week away, the BJP on Friday said it does not believe in “political untouchability” and is open to support from any party.

While exuding confidence that BJP and its existing NDA partners would win more than 300 seats to form a government, Narendra Modi’s close aide and BJP’s UP in—charge Amit Shah said that the party is still open to support from any party “if they want to ally for the country’s development“.

Reacting to

>BSP leader Mayawati’s comments that there was no possibility of her party supporting the BJP, Shah told reporters in Varanasi that the “BJP does not believe in political untouchability“.

Mayawati’s comments came a day after BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi indicated in an interview that he expected more parties to join the NDA after the elections.

“All parties are welcome to join the NDA if they want to give their support for the development of this country,” Shah said.

He also reiterated the BJP’s demand for

>transfer of Varanasi District Magistrate Pranjal Yadav and asked the Election Commission to deploy Central paramilitary forces in all 18 constituencies in UP that would go to the polls on Monday along with Varanasi as all of them were “sensitive.“

“While we welcome dployment of forces for elections here, why Azamgarh is being left out from where Mulayam Singh Yadav is fighting and his son Akhilesh Yadav is the Chief Minister of this State,” Shah said.

There appeared to be some differences within the Election Commission on this matter.“I agree that the Election Commission should not fear anyone, but they must ensure free and fair polls,"he added.

“Chief Election Commission V S Sampath should not be afraid of us as all we want is free and fair polls,” Shah said when asked about Sampath’s remarks to this effect. He also said that there were no more election programmes of Modi planned for Varanasi now.