Amit Shah Can Be CM If He Wants

Interview/Vijay Rupani, Gujarat chief minister.

- Nandini Oza

What are the challenges before the BJP?

The Congress and Rahul Gandhi are playing old cassettes. There is no new subject. Anti-incumbency is an issue that was talked about in 2002, 2007, 2012, 2014 and even now. However, anti-incumbency arises only when people in the government are arrogant, have not cared for the people, not heard their problems and not given solutions. Our government has been pro-people and people-friendly. Especially in the last 16 months, even small problems have been properly tackled.

How many seats are you expecting?

We have set a target of 150 plus seats. There is a logic to it. In Uttar Pradesh, nobody believed that we will get 300 plus seats. We got three-fourths majority. The wave of 2014 continued in Uttar Pradesh. After Narendrabhai (Narendra Modi) became prime minister, his graph has gone up because of the work he has done. People had a hope that UP will become like Gujarat, and rise above caste politics. Yogi [Adityanath] came later. The whole election was on Modi.

In Gujarat, we won all 26 Lok Sabha seats and led in 160 plus assembly segments. Moreover, the Congress has seen a big split. Fourteen MLAs have left the party along with Shankersinh Vaghela and 12 of them have joined the BJP.

The people of Gujarat want development, and only the BJP can provide it. This is a wave and there is all possibility of us getting 150 plus seats. There is no doubt that we will form the government. The debate is only on the number of seats. The BJP will form the government with around 125 to 130 seats.

Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani are getting good response.