Statements like ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko’ and ‘India-Pakistan match’ should not have been made, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday accepting the defeat in Delhi Assembly elections while speaking at the Times Now Summit.

“I accept our defeat in the Delhi elections. Statements like Desh ke gaddaron ko should not have been made. The party might have suffered because of such statements,” Shah said.

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“Though the party had distanced itself from such remarks, it may have suffered in the elections because of hate statements made by party leaders,” he was reported as saying by news agency PTI.

This was the first time that the Home Minister was speaking on the Delhi election results. Perhaps, he was very active during the campaigns for BJP in the state and had reportedly held over 40 rallies for his party’s candidates.

The ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko’ statement popped up during an election rally by Union Minister Anurag Thakur in Rithala in North Delhi during which he was seen prompting “desh ke gaddaron ko…” to which the crowd responded “…goli maaro s***n ko”.

Taking action on the act, the Election Commission had banned Thakur from campaigning for 72 hours during the polls.

Another BJP leader to triggered controversy during the election was Kapil Mishra who contested and defeated by AAP’s candidate, from Model Town constituency.

Mishra in a series tweet had referred Delhi elections as India vs Pakistan match for which Election Commission had banned him for 48 hours from campaigning.

Reiterating his stance on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Amit Shah while speaking at the Times Now Summit challenged anyone who holds views against the Act to have a debate with him.

“I will give time within 3 days to anyone who wants to discuss with me the issues related to the Citizenship Amendment Act,” he said.

Speaking on the alleged link between PFI and Shaheen Bagh protest, he said, “We got some reports related to the PFI connection and the Home Ministry is looking into the matter.”

“We will act as per the outcome of the investigation and act accordingly,” he added.