Bypoll reverses, don't feel depressed: Shah to party workers

After a setback in by-elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Wednesday asked party workers not to feel depressed and said they would win upcoming Assembly polls in four states with a thumping majority and move ahead with its “Congress-free India” agenda.

As the BJP smarted from the electoral blow losing 13 of the 23 Assembly seats it held, Shah said “some election results have come. Opposition is feeling overwhelmed. They feel that something very good has happened as at a few places BJP has been defeated; but they can’t see that we have opened our account in Assam, they can’t see we have won in Bengal.” The BJP suffered reverses in its strongholds in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat just four months after its spectacular Lok Sabha victory in what was considered a test of popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Friends don’t measure these by-election results. There are elections in four states. You will see BJP will win elections in these states with a thumping majority and our agenda of Congress-free India will move forward,” Shah said.

He was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel and a martyrs’ memorial at Gorta,a village in Bidar district on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.