BJP President Amit Shah today claimed that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh after assembly election in the state due next year.
"I am confident that the party will form a majority government after 2017 election," he told reporters after inaugurating the party's newly renovated state office.
Shah said that he didn't want to talk about politics, but he wanted to refer to nationalism.
"I want to ask Congress and specially its Vice President Rahul Gandhi that whether he consider slogans raised in JNU as anti-national or freedom of speech," he said.
He must clarify about his party's ideological ground, he said.
The BJP President said that he had been raising the question for the last six days, but Rahul was maintaining silence.
He asked the party workers to raise the issue in every village and said that such slogans would not be supported in democracy.
Shah said that strict action should be taken against those involved in such activities.
Attacking Rahul, Shah had alleged yesterday in Bahraich, that he was supporting the forces dividing the country for "votebank politics".
"I specially want to ask Congress and its workers whether those raising slogans like 'Afzal Guru tere hatrayre zinda hain' and 'Bharat ke tukde honge' were traitors or not," Shah had said at a public meeting after unveiling of a statue of 11th century king of Shravasti, Raja Suheldeo.
Rahul has come out in support of JNU students, who are protesting the arrest of JNU Students' Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charge, and has accused RSS and BJP of imposing their ideology.
(REOPENS DES 43)
Responding to senior Congress leader Kamal Nath's comment on Modi's frequent foreign visits, Shah said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to go abroad more often than Modi but he did it so quietly that no one got a whiff of it.
"The only difference was Manmohanji went abroad silently and came back after reading out his written speech. Sometimes, he would read out a speech in Thailand which was supposed to be delivered in Malaysia whereas, when Modiji visits a country, he attracts international attention and the whole world listens to him," said Shah.
The BJP chief also lashed out at Congress for opposing the creation of Uttarakhand and said it was the result of BJP's efforts that the state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
Senior party leaders including former chief ministers Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and Vijay Bahuguna (who recently defected to BJP), Harak Singh Rawat, BJP state in-charge Shyam Jaju, state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt shared the dais with Shah as a large crowd gathered to listen to him despite section 144 being in force.
Earlier, accompanied by Bhatt, Jaju, Harak Singh Rawat and others, Shah paid obeisance at Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines.
