Union Minister Prakash Javadekar denies that 'Modi magic' is declining, says bypolls not the right measure

Dehradun: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday denied that the Modi magic was on the wane claiming that the BJP will return to power at the Centre even stronger after 2019 Lok Sabha polls. [caption id=“attachment_4199841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Union minister Prakash Javadekar. PTI[/caption] “There is no question of the Modi magic fading. His magic persists and we will emerge even stronger at the Centre after 2019,” Javadekar said in an informal chat with reporters in Dehradun on completion of Modi government’s four years in office. Those who look upon Thursday’s bypoll results as an expression of public opinion on Narendra Modi government’s performance were wrong, he said. On Thursday, dealing a body blow to the ruling BJP, opposition parties emerged victorious in 11 out of 14 bypolls while limiting the saffron party and its allies at just three and snatching the high-profile Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh with a united force. “Bypolls are different. Voter turnout is low and local factors are at work. Bypoll results cannot be a pointer to what is going to happen in the general elections,” he said. “Modi was not in the picture in the bypolls. He did not go anywhere. So it shouldn’t be perceived as a verdict on his government under whom the country is doing well on every front,” the minister said. “We are going to do even better in 2019 than we did in 2014 in a number of states such as Orissa, West Bengal, Kerala and the northeast,” he said. The minister also sought to shatter the perception that Modi and Amit Shah were the only people who mattered in the NDA and all ministries were answerable to them. “Their (Modi, Shah) vision may guide ministries but that is not to say they have no freedom to take their own decisions,” Javadekar said, adding some wrong perceptions have also been created. Patting BJP government’s back for providing clean governance, he said in the last four years of Modi rule there had not been a single corruption charge against any minister. “Not only that. We have also put in place a system under which corruption cannot grow by eliminating middlemen. Now 100 percent of the money released by the Centre under welfare schemes reaches the beneficiaries,” he said, claiming elimination of middlemen as a major reformative step by the Modi government. Highlighting  steps taken in  the infrastructure sector over the past four years, Javadekar mentioned the all-weather roads project for Chardham in Uttarakhand on which work is underway on a war footing. Asked whether it would not be challenging for BJP to take on a united opposition in 2019 he said, opposition unity was not so easy to come about. The main hurdles to opposition unity will start when it comes to  seat sharing between parties of all hues, Javadekar said.