200 seats for sure in Bengal, claims Shah after first phase

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

Confident of winning both West Bengal and Assam, Home Minister Amit Shah today said the turnout in the first phase was a “shubh sanket” (positive indication) that the “BJP is winning the elections with huge numbers”. The former party president added that no incidence of violence on the day of polling was another “shubh sanket” that the BJP would be “sweeping” the elections in the two states.

Citing the feedback received from party workers on the ground, he said the BJP would win 26 of the 30 seats in West Bengal and 37 of the 47 seats in Assam —- the elections to which were held in the first phase on Saturday.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Shah claimed that the BJP was on course to achieve its target of winning over 200 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly and improving its alliance tally of  86 seats in the 126-member Assam Assembly. He asserted that people had voted for the “positive” agenda espoused by the party.

He also appealed to the people of Nandigram —- the seat from which Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee is contesting polls —- to vote for change and a better future.

Shah also rejected Mamata’s charge that PM Narendra Modi’s visit to a temple of the Matua community — which is in sizeable number in the state — during his trip to Bangladesh violated the poll code.

He said the visit had nothing to do with the elections and was aimed at fostering deeper ties between the two countries.