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Balakot airstrike will help Modi seize power in 2019 LS polls: Yogi

Kashmir Times. Dated: 3/13/2019 1:49:18 PM

LUCKNOW, Mar 12 (Agencies): Hitting out at those criticising the IAF airstrike in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the Centre's daring action would help bring the Narendra Modi government easily win the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2019 and seize power for a second term.
The UP CM took to Twitter and tweeted a poem in which he exuded confidence that his party will comfortably win at least 74 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
“The solid step taken by the Narendra Modi government recently to conduct airstrikes in Pakistan … in view of the same, Narendra Modi ji will again form the government,” the UP CM had said in a tweet earlier.
In a series of tweets, the firebrand saint-politician hit out at the Opposition leaders for questioning the morale of the armed forces and raising doubts over the IAF airstrike in Pakistan. In some other tweets, the CM Yogi Adityanath expressed confidence that his party will win at least 74 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election 2019.
In the aftermath of the February 26 airstrikes by the IAF in Pakistan’s Balakot in which the biggest terror camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed group was targeted, BJP leaders in Karnataka and Jharkhand had said that their party would benefit from the action during the elections.
"BJP will win all 14 seats in the Jharkhand, our surveys tell us that," BJP Jharkhand president Laxman Gilua had said earlier this month.
Prior to that, Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa had said that the Balakot air strike has led to a "pro-Modi wave” in the country and would help the party win more than 22 seats in the southern state.
While the BJP central leadership had distanced itself from the remarks, maintaining that it doesn't want to politicise the airstrikes, Opposition leaders led by Congress had attacked the Modi government for using the IAF action for electoral gains.
A day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the dates for the 17th Lok Sabha elections, commencing from April 11, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had donated a huge amount of Rs 2.51 lakh from his salary to the BJP’s ‘Samarpan Kosh.’
Chief Minister Adityanath also urged his Ministers, MLAs, Municipal Corporation presidents, and vice presidents to donate their salary to the party’s fund. Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake, will undergo the poll during all seven phases, beginning April 11 and ending on May 19.
The counting of votes will take place on May 23 to declare 543 members elected for the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian Parliament.