New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS): Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Thursday said that a controversial slogan and statements made in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections may have caused the party dear.

"We stick to our stand on the Shaheen Bagh protests (against the CAA). However, slogan like 'Desh ke gaddaron ko' and statements like 'India vs Pakistan' (contest on the polling day) should not have been made. Our performance may have suffered because of this," Shah said at the Times Now Summit in New Delhi.

It was at a public rally addressed by Union Minister Anurag Thakur in Delhi that the controversial slogan was raised, which brought him censure from the Election Commission of India.

Asserting that people were entitled to protest democratically, Shah claimed that constroversial statements were made at the Shaheen Bagh protest site.

As for arrested Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam, the Home Minister said: "He spoke about shutting Assam. We have shut him in a jail instead."

He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs was looking into possible links between the Popular Front of India and Shaheen Bagh protesters.

Shah also said that the police crackdown at the Jamia Millia Islamia in December last year wasn't on students but "those who burnt buses" in violence outside the campus.