Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his helicopter ride to Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj on Wednesday, spoke to India TV, exuding confidence of winning over 70 seats out of 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
Shah said the BJP will surely increase its tally in Uttar Pradesh and break the record of the Lok Sabha election 2014 in the state.
"I'm seeing a strong wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People will be surprised after June 4. The tally in UP will improve to over 70. We will break 2014 record in Uttar Pradesh," the home minister said.
Recalling Akhilesh Yadav's regime, Shah said PM Modi was MP from Uttar Pradesh but he was not able to do much for the state as the SP government did not cooperate.
When Yogi Adityanath became chief minister in 2017, PM Modi took UP's infrastructure and other development projects into his hand, the results can be seen today, he added.
Praising UP CM, he said Yogi took some bold measures to fix deteriorating low and order situation in the state. Afer 1960s for the first time, people of Uttar Pradesh are feeling safe because of the good law and order situation in the state, he added.
Shah further said the Modi government brought several pro-poor schemes which helped the poor living in the Bundelkhand areas.
"We provided LPG gas, water, free foodgrains and Ayushman Bharat Yojana to poor of the state. There is a big chunk of beneficiaries in UP, who are getting government's support," he stated.
Shah slams SP-Congress alliance
On changed political landscape in UP, Shah said when Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Congress all together got just 43 per cent vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Both (Congress and SP) reached 26 per vote share and now for them, the route to get more than 50 per cent is very dificult, he added.
On question related to vote jihad, Shah said if any community votes based on religion, there will be a counter polarisation.
Rahul, Akhilesh will blame EVMs for poll defeat: Shah
Later, while addressing Maharajganj rally, Shah took a jibe at the Samajwadi Party and Congress, saying they have decided to blame electronic voting machines for their defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. At a public meeting in support of party candidate Pankaj Chaudhary in Maharajganj, he also claimed that the BJP has crossed the majority mark in the first five rounds of polls.
"The counting is on June 4. In the afternoon the two 'shehzade' (Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav) will hold a press conference and say we lost the election because EVM was defective," he said.
"Modi has crossed 310 seats in five rounds. Rahul baba you will not get even 40 seats and the other 'shehzade' (Akhilesh Yadav) will just get four seats," he said.
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