Exclusive: Rahul Gandhi is lucky mascot for BJP: Dinesh Sharma

Anurag Shukla

Lucknow: Amid all the uproar by the political groups claiming their win in the upcoming Gujarat polls, the dates of which have been announced by the election commission recently, there is someone who is quite confident of their win. The Bharatiya Janata Party, who has been ruling the state since past 23 years, is assured of clinching victory in 2017 assembly polls too.

Not only the senior leadership of the BJP, but all the members in every state, are confident of party’s win in Gujarat.

Boosting with confidence, the party leaders have even declared Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as their lucky mascot and said that he plays an important role in BJP’s full majority win in every state.

Here are some excerpts from an exclusive interview of BJP’s prominent leader and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, with newstrack.com and Apna Bharat, regarding his expectations from the performance of BJP in Gujarat and how the opposition’s strategy would be tackled by Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.

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Gujarat poll dates have been announced by the EC. What are your expectations regarding BJP’s performance there?

Dinesh Sharma: I am assured of Gujarat getting three-fourth majority in the state. Gujarat is the work place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Every Gujarati still remembers and gives examples of the work done in the state by the BJP leadership. I have spent more than three years in Gujarat and all I have witnessed is that the place has risen above the religion and caste system. People there now discuss development and no one can match the level of work the BJP has done there.

BJP is being criticised in the state on various topics. How do you see this affecting the poll results?

Dinesh Sharma: The people who were protesting against us on different issues and at different time have all taken sides to a particular party which claims to give an alternative to our government in Gujarat. It’s quite evident now that these all protests were managed by a single force who even did not dare to come out against us. They were trying to divide the Gujaratis on the basis of religion and caste but failed.

Check in slides ahead: the complete interview...

Rahul Gandhi looks aggressive in Gujarat. Do you think his election campaign will have any adverse effect on BJP’s vote count?

Dinesh Sharma: Rahul Gandhi is our lucky mascot. His campaigns have always worked in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has won majorities wherever the Congress VP has campaigned. I wish Rahul Gandhi keeps on campaigning for us and we are assured of winning with huge majority in the state.

Do you think ‘Patidar’ issue will pose threat to BJP’s win in Gujarat?

Dinesh Sharma: The issue has been raged by people who are not more than 22 years in age. BJP has a history of 23 years of governance there what we did for the ‘Patidars’ could never be understood by these 22 years old youth.

In Gujarat, BJP and Patidars are synonym of each other and any unnecessary chaos against us on the basis of communal politics can never harm us in Gujarat.

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Hardik Patel has emerged as a strong leader in the state. What would you like to say about him?

Dinesh Sharma: I am no one to comment on any individual and neither would I criticise anyone. Gujarat has this special quality of giving back to the people according to the deeds they perform. Some protest campaigns were also organised in past but the people of the state had showed their unwillingness to join them.

The crowd at PM Modi and Amit Shah’s rallies itself depicts the strength of our party in the state.

A special section of the society, who is sitting in Delhi, targets us and our party but if you go among the farmers, youth and common people of the nation you will know how well we have performed in keeping our promises.

BJP focuses on ground level development and we have an organised structure of our booth workers.

When no one is able to stand with us, question of competing with anyone doesn’t come up.

It is to be mentioned that Gujarat Assembly election dates have been announced by the election commission. The state will go to polls on December 9 and 14 and the counting will take place on December 18.

Watch complete video in slide ahead:

https://youtu.be/8iqI6smeuRM