In Poll-Bound Haryana, Amit Shah Asks BJP Leaders to Make Winning a Habit

Mahendragarh, Haryana: BJP president Amit Shah, who is now also billed as the party's master election strategist, today launched a yatra in Haryana, where state elections will be held soon. He attacked the Congress and warned ally Kuldeep Bishnoi that the BJP is not looking at an automatic renewal of their partnership.

At his first major public rally after taking over as BJP chief, Mr Shah said in Mahendragarh that the people must rise above the caste politics that has always dominated the state.

This year's election in four crucial states, including Haryana, is the new BJP president's big test. He said today, "The time has come, from Assam to Dwarka, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, to implement Narendra Modi's slogan to remove the Congress and install the BJP." (Amit Shah Says Congress Ideology Should be Replaced with That of BJP)

His party would wrest back Haryana from the Congress by winning  a majority, predicted the man who had told BJP leaders last weekend, "We need to develop the habit of winning in all elections." ('In Every State, BJP Should be a Force to Reckon With': Amit Shah)

The last time Mr Shah made such a prediction, he over-delivered. In this year's general elections, the BJP won 71 of 80 seats in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, of which he had charge. Mr Shah had publicly reckoned that he would deliver 50-plus UP seats for his party. (Amit Shah 'Man of The Match', Says PM Modi)

Haryana has 90 assembly seats and the BJP's talks with partner Haryana Janahit Party led by Mr Bishnoi on seat-sharing have run into rough weather.

The yatra Mr Shah flagged off today will cover vast areas of the state in the next 11 days. Union ministers from Haryana will participate in it.

The BJP won seven of the eight seats that it contested in Haryana in the national elections and hopes to extend those gains to the state elections. It also hopes to offset the disadvantage of not having a popular face to project in Haryana and cash in on what it calls a "Modi wave."

The Congress seems to be fighting with its back to the wall beset as it is by dissidence against chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Gurgaon MP and minister Rao Inderjit Singh is a recent import from the Congress and a popular Jat leader from that party, Chaudhary Birender Singh is expected to formally join the BJP over the weekend after meeting Mr Shah a few days ago. (Congress MP Meets Amit Shah, Alarms His Party in Haryana)