Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah Thursday asserted that victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was crucial not only for the party, but also for the country, as 55 years of Congress rule could not protect India.
Addressing BJP ‘Shakti Kendra Pramukhs‘ at nearby Devanahalli, he said intrusions into the country had been going on since 1970, but no one took any action. “After we came to power we brought NRC. Congress, JDS, Communists, Mamata and Rahul Baba don’t want to drive the intruders away. They see them as vote banks. For us, they are not. They are a threat to the nation,” Shah said.
Shah appealed to the people to pave the way for formation of the BJP-led government in 2019 and said that in five years, it would identify each intruder and drive them away. In Assam alone, 40 lakh intruders had been identified, he added. Shah slammed the ‘Mahagathbandhan‘ (grand alliance against BJP), calling it an unholy alliance devoid of any ethics or morality.
“Nobody knows who’s their prime ministerial candidate. Even Deve Gowda Ji wants to be Prime Minister. They don’t have any ideology or ethics. This grand alliance cannot take the nation forward, cannot protect India, cannot materialise the dream of youth and cannot make India Vishwa Guru,” Shah said.
He also took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for ‘misleading’ the farmers. Shah said the UPA government in 10 years rule waived farm loan once, benefiting only three crore farmers with a budgetary provision of Rs 53,000 crore The BJP government, on the other hand, brought in a scheme benefiting 13 crore to 15 crore farmers with a budgetary allocation of Rs 75,000 crore every year, he said.
“Our government will give Rs 7.5 lakh crore in 10 years to farmers. This simple maths Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know. He doesn’t even know whether potatoes grow beneath the earth, above the earth or in factories. He said in Uttar Pradesh that he will set up a potato factory in the state. Don’t know who writes speech copies for him,” Shah said, as the crowd burst into laughter.
Mocking the Karnataka Congress-JDS coalition government, Shah said “There’s a 2.5 CM govt in Karnataka, where CM is a clerk; Siddaramaiah is super CM and Parameshwara is half CM. This cannot take the state forward.”
Siddaramaiah is a former chief minister and Congress Legislature Party leader and his party colleague Parameshwara is the deputy chief minister. He asked the people to give a clear mandate in the Lok Sabha polls so that a “Karnataka-like situation” is not replicated at the Centre.
Following dissensions within the ruling Congress-JDS coalition, the BJP has alleged that there is political instability in Karnataka. The combine, on the other hand, has accused the saffron party of trying to topple the government.