Congress has no moral right to preach us democracy: Amit Shah

While addressing a press conference on Monday, Shah said : "Congress party with a history of dismissing more then 50 governments by abusing Article 356 has no moral right to preach us on democracy."

This is the first time Shah had interacted with media following the Karnataka poll results, which came out on May 15.

As the Karnataka people gave a fractured mandate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which emerged as a single largest party with 104 seats, was invited to form the government by Governor Vajubhai Vala.

However, the Congress and the JD(S) combine claimed to have the simple majority (113) with the support of 117 lawmakers.

Shah has referred to the Goa, Manipur instances where the BJP could form the government despite coming second in the polls.

Trying to establish his point, Shah said: "In Goa and Manipur, the Congress despite being the single largest party had not staked claims, so the Governor invited us"

The political tussle reached the judiciary as the Congress-JD(S) moved the Supreme Court to stall BJP's strongman BS Yeddyurappa's swearing-in as the CM.

Though the swearing-in ceremony was not stopped, the top court had slashed the 15-day period, which was given by the Governor to the BJP to prove majority, to little more than 24 hours.

Even before the floor test began, Yeddyurappa had resigned as the BJP failed to secure the simple majority. With two seats yet to be polled, BJP would have required the support of 113 MLAs for the time being to form the state government.

The Congress had also accused the BJP of trying to poach the former's elected lawmakers after the poll results. In order to prevent any kind of alleged horse-trading, the Congress had parked all its lawmakers at resorts, first in Bengaluru and later in Hyderabad.

The Congress had also released few audio tapes to prove the BJP's efforts of horse-trading.

Rubbishing all allegations, Shah said the BJP does not endorse the idea of horse-trading.

"We never believe in horse-trading. Congress should answer what they did with MLAs by locking them in a five-star hotel," the BJP president said.

Shah said Karnataka's mandate was against the Congress as it was reduced to just 78 seats in a 224-member Assembly. He also termed the Congress-JD(S) alliance as "unholy".

The BJP president said: "BJP emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka. Karnataka mandate was in favour of the BJP. Congress crossed all limits in Karnataka elections. JD(S) formed an alliance with Congress against the people's mandate. This is an unholy alliance."

The Congress-JD(S) post-poll alliance, which was reportedly engineered by several opposition leaders like Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, has raised questions whether it is the beginning of a possible grand alliance against the BJP for the 2019 General Election.

Exuding confidence in winning the next General Elections, Shah said the BJP will win the political battle on its own. "We will form the government with absolute majority in 2019."

Image: twitter.com/BJP4India