Congress rejected, its pact unholy...we staked claim due to mandate: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah said on Monday that the party staked claim to form government in Karnataka because it was its moral duty to do so as the single-largest formation. It was also due to the faith that those who had won seeking mandate against Congress would support BJP on the floor of the House, he said at a press conference here.

Shah said had Congress and JD(S) not "illegally" confined their MLAs, people would have told them who they should be siding with. Shah said Congress has found a new way of discovering victory in its defeats. If it stuck to its notion of victory when "its Chief Minister lost along with most of the Cabinet", then BJP would have no problem in winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said.

Describing the Congress-JD(S) alliance as "unholy", he said HD Deve Gowda's party fought the election on an anti-Congress plank. In a hung Assembly, when a fresh poll was not an option, if BJP had not staked claim, it would have been against the popular mandate, he said, claiming that people had made BJP winner in the election. "You should also ask Rahul Gandhi why he has kept MLAs in hotels. They are still there; they have not been released," he said.

"The people of Karnataka are not celebrating, Congress and JD(S) are. Why is Congress celebrating? Because the number of their MLAs has come down from 122 to 78, or because over half of its ministers lost, or is this because it has been reduced to PPP (Puducherry-Punjab-Parivar)?" Shah asked.

"What is JD(S) celebrating? It lost deposits of its candidates in over 80 per cent of seats," he said. He also rejected the Opposition's criticism that BJP formed governments in states like Goa and Manipur despite not being the single-largest party, saying Congress which had most MLAs in the two states never staked claim to form government there.

He also rejected charges of horse-trading. "Had there been horse-trading would this have been the result?" He said Congress made false allegations and released forged tapes of conversations to pressure the Supreme Court." He asked why no question was raised when Congress bought the "entire stable", referring to JD(S).

He said BJP always respects the judiciary and added wryly that it would not think about impeachment of judges like Congress for some decisions. He said one "good" outcome of the Karnataka verdict has been that Congress party's respect for institutions like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission besides Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has increased."I hope Congress finds them good when it loses the coming elections and it does not bring an impeachment motion if it does not like a Supreme Court judgment," he said.

He said people will certainly question their MLAs when they come out of hotels as their vote was against Congress but added that he is not an astrologer who can predict the alliance's future. He said BJP will respond to any changed political situation when it arises.