UP civic poll results show people have embraced economic reforms: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: Hailing his party's big win in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls, BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday said the results had made it clear that the people had embraced the economic reforms and rejected the politics of casteism, appeasement and dynasty. In a statement, he also claimed that the people's support for the saffron party would be the same in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls and that the Uttar Pradesh results would be repeated on December 18, when the verdict of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections would be out. "This unprecedented win in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls is another example of the people's unshakable faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and the BJP's politics of performance," Shah said. In an obvious reference to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said it was clear from the poll results that the people had embraced the economic reforms of the BJP-led central government. Shah said the opposition -- the SP, BSP and Congress -- were decimated in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls, while pointing out that the Congress had lost heavily from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituencies of its president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi respectively. The people were in favour of development and had constantly rejected negative and parochial politics, the BJP chief said, adding that all sections of the society, especially the Dalits, backwards and the poor, had supported the saffron party.