As the Lok Sabha election moves northwards and towards eastern Uttar Pradesh, The Hindu’s Nistula Hebbar caught up with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Varanasi, for an interview on how he sees this election panning out. Mr. Shah expressed confidence that the BJP would get a comfortable, full majority government. He cited the higher rates of polling in the Kashmir Valley as a win over naysayers who had apprehended alienation from India in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Mr. Shah said that the rise in voting percentage from 14% in the past to 37% on May 14 in Srinagar, which went to polls in the fourth phase was the “greatest testament to the rightness of the decision” to removing Article 370.
Article 370 had provisions for special status being accorded to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and which was removed in August 2019 by Parliament. The 2024 Lok Sabha polls are the first set of polls on the basis of political parties since then.