Jaipur: Exuding confidence of BJP retaining power in Rajasthan in the coming Assembly elections, BJP president Amit Shah said on Tuesday that the party’s victory in the desert state would be a “trailer” for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Mr Shah, who was in Jaipur to take stock of poll preparations, said that the results in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections later this year will set the tone for BJP’s big win in next year’s parliamentary polls.
“The BJP’s victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will pave the way for the party’s rule for the next 50 years,” Mr Shah told BJP workers at “Shakti Kendra Sammelan.”
“The ‘mahagathbandhan’, or the grand alliance, that the Opposition is talking about will have no impact except a little influence in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
During his third visit to Rajasthan since July, Mr Shah told party workers to ask people what they felt about having Congress president Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as external affairs minister and Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav as defence minister.
“You need to tell people about this. Go to the public and highlight the work done by the Narendra Modi and the Vasundhara Raje governments,” he said.
The BJP president said Congress president Rahul Gandhi is dreaming about his party’s comeback in Rajasthan, whereas no one can beat the BJP in the land of Maharana Pratap.
“Rahul baba has the right to dream but he will wake up on the day of counting,” Mr Shah said.
Hinting at the infighting in the Congress, Mr Shah said, “People also have a right to ask about name of your leader. Why don’t you declare your leader and clearly say that under whose leadership you are going to fight the election.” Picking up from where he left during his visit in August when he flagged off chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s “Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra”, Mr Shah came down heavily on the Congress over its opposition to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam.
“We will now allow a single Bangladeshi infiltrator to live in this country but the Congress is worried about its vote bank without caring for country’s people and security. Let them oppose, but we will not budge,” he said.
The BJP president also slammed the Congress for raising human rights issues to shield subversives. “You speak of human rights but I ask you don’t the poor people in the country have human rights? Isn’t there a concern about the security of the country? Hundreds of terrorists infiltrate into the country and plan bomb blasts. Several such incidents happened during your regime in Ahmedabad and Mumbai,” the BJP president said.
In the same breath, Mr Shah raised the issue of “urban naxals” and criticised Mr Gandhi for his support to social activists arrested by Maharashtra police. “Should we give liberty to those who plot to kill the Prime Minister of the country?” he asked.
Mr Shah said that the BJP would win every election before the Lok Sabha polls next year.
He claimed the Congress has tried to create a state of confusion in the country, and referred to lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri over alleged cow slaughter and the 2015 protest in which a group of writers returned their awards.
“The BJP had won elections when the Akhlaq issue and award “wapsi” happened and the party will win this time too even if they (Congress) bring up some other issue,” he said.
Mr Shah asked each Rajasthan BJP worker to visit at least five villages till the elections and tell people about the work done by the Modi government, like the surgical strike against Pakistan and the increase in minimum support price for farm produce.
