Echoes of Ramjanmabhoomi were loud in the BJP’s national convention ahead of the general elections, which the ruling party President Amit Shah described as a “Modi-versus-all war” on Friday.

Shah termed the alliance between Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh as an instance of the opposition parties ganging up to challenge the political primacy of the BJP and Modi, whom he described as the “most popular leader in the world”. The BJP President was addressing the party’s national convention which gathered over 1200 delegates.

The loudest contingent was from Uttar Pradesh, which demanded “a temple for Ram Lalla” while the party President was asserting that they will get 74 seats in the politically critical Hindi heartland State. Shah responded to the demand with an assertion that “we were committed and we will remain committed to the Ram temple”.

Shah said 2019 general election is a “battle of two contrasting ideologies” with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi forming one pole and the rest of political parties grouping to oust him. Likening the contest to the “third Battle of Panipat”, Shah said: “The Marathas lost in the third Battle of Panipat plunging India into 200 years of slavery. General elections this year is a similar decisive war with a popular leader who gave good and clean governance on one side, and a disparate group, brought together by their greed for power, with neither a leader nor a policy on the other side.”

Shah repeatedly emphasised the significance of the upcoming polls, stressed on a number of Modi government’s measures related to security, curbing corruption and welfare programmes, and hit out at the Congress for targeting Modi on graft issue when its President Rahul Gandhi is on bail in a “case of corruption”.

Shah said that from six states, the BJP has come to power in 16 now, he said it will rule south India and form its government in Kerala if the Modi government is re-elected.

Reassures cadre

Amid a growing challenge from opposition parties and the BJP’s defeat in the recent State polls, Shah sought to reassure the party cadres about its prospects in the general elections, saying he knew Modi since 1987 and not a single election has been lost under him. Mocking the “ bua-bhatija ” alliance of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP, he said they could not stand each other but have now joined hands due to the BJP’s fear.

Referring to the passage of the 10 per cent Reservation Bill in Parliament, Shah said the Modi government has “fulfilled” the dreams of crores of youths and described the Constitutional amendment Bill as one of the most important legislations passed by Parliament.

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