BJP President Amit Shah today ruled out any post-poll alliances with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or any other party, in the event of a hung assembly in Uttar Pradesh. When asked whether the BJP saw a disadvantage in not naming a chief ministerial face in UP, Shah said this was his party's "strategy". He restricted himself to stating that the choice would be made by the elected MLAs and the BJP parliamentary board. The BJP chief also accused the party's political opponents of indulging in the "politics of appeasement." Shah is confident that the BJP will clinch more than 130 of the 209 constituencies which went to the polls in the first three phases.

Source: India Today February 22, 2017 10:20 UTC