The BJP is yet to take a decision on its candidate for the presidential election, even as the party rejected the Shiv Sena’s proposal to nominate RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Replying to a question on the BJP-led NDA’s candidate for the presidential polls in July as the Opposition was already working on putting up a joint candidate, BJP president Amit Shah said in a TV interview that a decision was yet to be taken.
“Even if I have a name on my mind, it has to be discussed within the party first,” he said.
Bhagwat not in race
He also rejected the Shiv Sena’s proposal regarding Bhagwat , saying the RSS had itself ruled out any such idea.
To questions on Kashmir, Mr. Shah said there was no need for even an “iota of concern” over the situation in the State which had witnessed months of unrest, and asserted that the Narendra Modi government would bring the situation under control.
“There is a big gap between the reality and the projection” of the Kashmir situation and the trouble was confined to “three and a half districts”, he said.
The government was keeping a sharp vigil, and the Valley had witnessed such unrest in the past and the situation got normalised back then, he said.
The BJP national president also attacked the Congress for criticising the government, claiming that it had no right to do so as the Kashmir problem was an outcome of the policies of its governments since Independence.
Jharkhand lynching
Terming the lynching of seven persons in Jharkhand by a mob over abduction rumours an “isolated and stray incident” which happens in a country of 125 crore people, the BJP chief said it would not be appropriate to link such cases of violence to his party.
People should look up the crime data to find out if cases of violence have increased under the BJP governments, he said.
Ahead of the Modi government’s third anniversary, the BJP president said it has won the people’s trust and added that the poor have the belief that it was working for their welfare.
Mass support
In a democracy the “biggest certificate is the people’s verdict” and the masses have time and again underscored their support for the BJP-led NDA government, he said in a reference to the BJP’s win in several State elections.
The Modi government has been able to rid the country of the politics of casteism, family rule and appeasement, and turned the focus on the politics of performance, the party president claimed.
While the United Progressive Alliance government was accused of scams running into ₹12 lakh crore, even rivals of the NDA government have not levelled a single charge of corruption against it, Mr. Shah claimed.
