Amit Shah dismisses AAP, says Gujarat election fight is between BJP, Congress

“It might look like a triangular fight but when results are out we get to know whether it was a triangular fight or not. However, the seemingly triangular contest has happened twice in the recent past in Gujarat — Shankersinh Vaghela had launched his party, Shri Keshubhai Patel had launched his party, and before this Chimanbhai Patel had formed his party… he was a national general secretary of the Congress… Ratubhai Adani also launched his own party. In all four instances the people of Gujarat certified and put their stamp on a two-way contest,” Shah said.

Vaghela who had launched the Rashtriya Janata Party after breaking away from the BJP, and became CM with Congress support, contested the elections in 1998 to win only four seats, while Keshubhai’s Gujarat Parivartan Party that contested in 2012 could win only two seats.

In 1990, Gujarat saw a real triangular contest when the Chimanbhai-led Janata Dal (U) won 70 seats, the BJP got 67 and the Congress 33 and Patel went on to form the government, first with Congress backing that lasted a few months, and later with BJP’s backing.

Shah’s comments come in the wake of Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal terming the elections this time a “fight between the BJP and AAP”, dismissing the Congress. On Monday, in an interview to a television channel, he said the Congress would get “less than five seats”.

In 2017, when the AAP contested on 29 seats, losing their deposit on all of them, Congress saw its best performance since 1990, winning 77 seats, just 22 less than the BJP.

The BJP has been aggressively countering AAP’s campaign, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stirring up the “revadi” debate, but the Bhupendra Patel government made several populist announcements before the election dates were announced.

Asked about the number of seats the BJP was targeting to win, Shah said to predict that would be “tough” as “BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), (Asaduddin) Owaisi is also putting up candidates and the whole list is not out yet.. there are many independents from other parties who could make or break a seat…”

The AAP is fighting on all 182 seats of Gujarat, while All-India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has announced candidates on 10 seats. The Congress has a seat sharing pact with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which will take three seats.

To a question on the remission granted to the Bilkis Bano gangrape accused, Shah said, “The court awarded them 14 years and there is a provision that seeing their behaviour in the 14 years you can release them. The job of awarding punishment is of the court, not ours,” said Shah.