New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday shrugged off the challenge posed by the Congress-led opposition building against the ruling alliance and said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would return to power in 2019 general elections with a bigger majority.

BJP president Amit Shah pointed to the coming-together of opposition parties in Karnataka for the swearing-in ceremony of chief minister-designate H. D. Kumaraswamy and said that all these political parties were also against the BJP during the 2014 general elections.

“All these people were against us in 2014. They have always been against BJP. We will get a bigger mandate in 2019 general elections," Shah said.

The BJP president also pointed out that the Congress had lost 14 elections to the BJP-led NDA in the last four years and the party did not return to power on its own in Karnataka. “The mandate of the people of Karnataka is with the BJP because the party got 104 seats and became the single-largest party. The verdict of the assembly polls is against the Congress. Why is the Congress celebrating? The Congress tally in Karnataka is 78 from 122. What is the celebration about in Congress?" asked Shah.

Defending the stand of the BJP to stake claim to form the government in Karnataka, Shah said that the party decided to meet the governor and stake claim because it was the single-largest party.

“The verdict of Karnataka polls is against the Congress. No party got majority on its own. As the BJP is the largest party with maximum number of seats it was the right of the party to form government. If BJP did not stake claim to form government, it would have been against the mandate of the people. We thought that all the parties who had contested the polls against Congress would support BJP," Shah said.

Describing the alliance between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress as against the will of the people, Shah said the BJP had contested the election on the issues of corruption, misgovernance, atrocities against Dalits, and crimes against women. “During the Congress government in the state, 3,700 farmers committed suicide and it was a big election issue. People of Karnataka did not vote Congress back to power and now the state does not have a Congress government," Shah said.

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