Can BJP win Uttar Pradesh as Amit Shah predicts?

Lucknow:  BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday 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.